Blessed Alvarez of Cordoba

After conducting missions in the kingdoms of Andalu sia and Ca stile a nd bring ing a great multitude of sinners back to God, he traveled to Italy and from there to Palestine, where the efforts of his holy ministry were no less consoling. Upon returning to Castile in the year 1405, he resumed the work he had so happily begun.

After the death of Henry II, King of Castile, Q ueen Catherine, his widow, chose him as her confessor, gave him her full confidence, and made him her intimate advisor. He took advantage of his influential position at court to promote piety and religion. As the duties he performed for the Queen became more difficult for him every day, he obtained permission to be relieved of them, and the princess, in dismissing him, enabled him to build a convent of his Order, undertaking to contribute to all the expenses of this establishment. Alvarez had it built on a mountain two leagues from Cordoba and gave it the name of Scala Coel i, that is to say, Ladder of Heaven, but he refused the rich endowment that the Queen and the young King John II, her son, wished to attach to it.

Once he had retired there, he soon saw a large number of religious and novices arrive, presenting themselves to live under his guidance. He contributed greatly to the extinction of the Western Schism through the efforts he made to detach from Peter de Luna the numerous partisans he still retained in Spain. A worthy imitator of Saint Vincent Ferrer, he did in Andalusia what that apostolic man was doing in various kingdoms, and his missions only ended with his life. He died on February 19, 1420, and various miracles attested to his holiness. Soon he was invoked as Blessed, and his tomb became famous for the gathering of pilgrims who came to seek his intercession. His cult was authorized by Benedict XIV, who extended it to the entire Order of Saint Dominic.

Dominican Year.