Juan Nepomuceno Zegrí Moreno

Deeply touched by social misery and the abandonment of the most destitute, Father Zegrí felt the call to found a religious congregation to alleviate all forms of suffering. On March 16, 1878, he founded the Congregation of the Sisters of Charity of Our Lady of Mercy (Mercedarian Sisters of Charity) in Malaga, under the patronage of the Virgin of Mercy (María de la Merced). The institute's specific mission is the practice of charity through spiritual and corporal works of mercy for the poor, the sick, orphans, and the elderly. The founder gave his religious sisters a demanding rule of life summarized by his motto: "Everything for the good of humanity, in God, for God, and towards God" (Todo para bien de la humanidad, en Dios, por Dios y para Dios). The congregation developed rapidly in Spain (notably in Andalusia in Granada, Cordoba, Loja, and then in the north of the country) before expanding internationally (Brazil, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Africa). The institute was aggregated to the Order of Mercy on June 9, 1878. It received the Decretum laudis from Pope Leo XIII on September 25, 1900, followed by definitive approval on April 24, 1901.

The life of Father Zegrí was marked by an ordeal of extreme gravity that tested his faith and charity. In 1888, while he was in Rome for the affairs of his congregation, he was falsely accused of misconduct and mismanagement by certain religious sisters of his own institute. The 7th of July 1888, a pontifical decree from the Holy See ordered him to distance himself from the congregation and to cease all intervention in its governance. Father Zegrí accepted this terrible injustice in heroic silence, without a word of resentment, offering his humiliation out of love for the Church and for his spiritual 'daughters.' After a long investigation, his total innocence was officially recognized by a new pontifical decree on the 15th of July 1894. Although rehabilitated and authorized to rejoin the congregation, he encountered misunderstanding and the refusal of certain superiors to accept him again as founder. To preserve the peace, the unity of the institute, and communion with the Church, he chose to withdraw voluntarily and live in seclusion. He spent his final years in poverty, isolation, and abandonment in Malaga. He died on the 17th of March 1905, alone and forsaken, configured to Christ crucified. It was not until 1925, twenty years after his death, that the Mercedarian Sisters of Charity officially and unanimously recognized him as their sole founder.

The cause for the beatification of Juan Nepomuceno Zegrí y Moreno was opened in the diocese of Malaga on July 5, 1958. The decree on the heroic nature of his virtues was promulgated on December 21, 2001, by Pope John Paul II, thereby declaring him Venerable.

He was beatified on November 9, 2003, by Pope John Paul II during a solemn celebration in Saint Peter's Square in Rome. His liturgical feast is set for March 17, the day of his birth into heaven.

The spirituality of Blessed Juan Nepomuceno Zegrí is based on redemptive charity, a profound Eucharistic piety, and a filial devotion to the Virgin Mary under the title of Our Lady of Mercy. He conceived of the priest as a good shepherd seeking the lost sheep, a physician healing wounded hearts, and a father embodying the visible providence of God for the abandoned.

Today, his spiritual and apostolic legacy is perpetuated through the Mercedarian Sisters of Charity. Present in many countries (Spain, Italy, France, Latin America, Africa, South Korea), the religious sisters continue to care for the sick, educate the youth, and accompany the elderly and marginalized, faithful to their founder's mission to "leave no being abandoned in the world."