Pedro Poveda Castroverde

Pedro Poveda (born Pedro José Luis Francisco Javier Poveda Castroverde; 3 December 1874 – 28 July 1936) was a Spanish Catholic priest, humanitarian, and educator. He was the founder of the Teresian Association. His humanitarian-educational activity lasted for over 30 years, until his execution by persecutors of the Christian faith in 1936. Poveda was beatified in 1993 and canonized in 2003; his feast day is 28 July.

Life

Youth and scholarship Pedro Poveda was born on 3 December 1874 at Linares, Spain, into the solidly Christian family of José Poveda Montes and María Linarejos Castroverde Moreno. Deciding to become a priest at a young age, he entered the seminary in Jaén in 1889, and then transferred to the seminary of Guadix, Granada, where he had been offered a scholarship by the bishop. Ordained on 17 April 1897 at the age of twenty-three, he taught at the seminary, continued his studies, and received his licentiate in theology in Seville in 1900.

Beginning of educational activity In 1902 he was assigned to preach a Lenten mission in Guadix to the Roma people who lived in the caves. He began Christian doctrine classes, then two schools for the children. Poveda moved to the caves in order to live closer to the people. He began Christian doctrine classes, then a school for boys and girls, a dining room and evening classes for adults. In 1922 he was appointed to the Central Board Against Illiteracy, and continued to work with the Teresian Association.

Death When the Civil War broke out, he was identified as an enemy by Republicans who wished to dechristianize the schools. A few days before his death he wrote, "Now more than ever we must study the lives of the first Christians so as to learn from them how to behave in times of persecution. See how they obeyed the Church, how they confessed Christ, how they prepared for martyrdom, how they prayed for their persecutors and forgave them...." He was shot by firing squad for his faith and for the cause of Christian education.

Teresian Association

Poveda was deeply aware of both the need for education in his country, and for qualified teachers to provide it. He also saw this as an important role for women. In 1911 he founded the St. Teresa of Avila Academy in Oviedo for those ladies studying to become teachers, and named it after St. Teresa of Avila, a woman of learning, a doctor of the Church, and a teacher of prayer. He named this organization the Teresian Association. Its aim is to invite men and women to work for a social and human transformation, in accordance with Gospel values, from the platform of their own professions, especially those related to the fields of education and culture. The early members of the Association were women involved in all levels of education, from elementary to the provision of higher education for women. Additional academies were established in many other cities of Spain.

The Teresian Association received its first approval from the Diocese of Jaén (Spain) in 1917. In 1924, Pope Pius XI approved the Teresian Association as a "pious union of the faithful", and it later spread to Chile and Italy. In 1951 the Teresian Association was granted the status of Secular Institute. On 10 July 1990, Pope John Paul II approved that it reverts to its original identity as being an Association of the Faithful. The Teresian Association is registered in the Vatican's Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life of the Holy See. It is active in thirty countries. Its objective is the human promotion of individuals and the transformation of unjust structures by means of an education and culture imparted from a Christian perspective.