Cristóbal de Santa Catalina

After his recovery, Cristóbal felt a pressing call to solitude and penance. In 1668, he retired to the Sierra de Córdoba, settling in the desert of El Bañuelo. There, he led a rigorous hermit's life, initially observing the rule of the hermits of Saint Paul. In 1670, he made his profession in the Third Order of Saint Francis at the convent of the Mother of God in Córdoba, taking the name "Cristóbal de Santa Catalina." He then founded a small community of tertiary hermits, sharing their daily life between prayer, manual labor, and helping local peasants. It was around this spiritual experience that his major work was born: the foundation of the Hospital of Our Father Jesus the Nazarene (Hospital de Nuestro Padre Jesús Nazareno) and the congregation of the Brothers and Sisters Hospitalers of Jesus the Nazarene (Franciscanas Hospitalarias de Jesús Nazareno). Touched by the material and spiritual misery striking the city of Córdoba, he decided in 1673 to leave his desert to devote himself entirely to the most destitute. On February 11, 1673, he founded the Hospital to welcome the incurable sick, marginalized women, the elderly, and abandoned children. To structure and perpetuate this work of charity, he drafted the Constitutions of the hospital fraternity. The members of the congregation dedicated themselves to the direct care of the sick and the collection of alms. Cristóbal himself tirelessly walked the streets of Córdoba, a sack over his shoulder, to beg for food and resources for his protégés. His absolute devotion and rigorous management earned him the respect of the entire population, from the poorest to the nobility and the successive bishops of the city. The institute of the Hospital Sisters of Jesus the Nazarene would receive official pontifical approval from Pope Benedict XIV in 1746.

The life of Father Cristóbal is marked by heroic charity and absolute trust in Divine Providence. At the entrance of his hospital, he had this motto inscribed: "My providence and your faith will keep this house standing" (in Spanish: "Mi providencia y tu fe han de tener esta casa en pie"). He stripped himself of everything he possessed, selling the gifts offered to him to distribute the proceeds to the poor. In 1690, a terrible epidemic (often identified as cholera or the plague) ravaged Cordoba. Without sparing his declining strength, Father Cristóbal spent himself without counting the cost at the bedside of the sick, both inside and outside his hospital. Contaminated in turn by the disease, he died exhausted on July 24, 1690, at the age of 51. He was buried in the church of the hospital he founded. His reputation for holiness was such that the process for his beatification began as early as 1692, only two years after his death.

The long process toward the official recognition of his holiness reached a decisive stage on June 28, 2012, when Pope Benedict XVI authorized the Congregation for the Causes of Saints to promulgate the decree recognizing his heroic virtues. A few months later, on December 20, 2012, Benedict XVI signed the decree approving a miracle attributed to his intercession. This miracle concerns the scientifically inexplicable healing, which occurred in 2002, of a woman 17 weeks pregnant who had suffered a premature rupture of membranes with total loss of amniotic fluid. While medical prognoses were extremely grim for the child's survival, nuns from the Hospital of Jesus Nazareno invoked the intercession of their founder. Within a few days, the amniotic sac was restored and the fluid regenerated, allowing for the normal continuation of the pregnancy and the birth of a perfectly healthy child. The beatification ceremony was celebrated on April 7, 2013, in the Cathedral of Cordoba. Presided over by Cardinal Angelo Amato, Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints and papal legate, it constitutes the very first beatification celebrated under the pontificate of Pope Francis (elected in March 2013) and the first in the history of the Diocese of Cordoba.

The spirituality of Blessed Cristóbal de Santa Catalina rests on a remarkable synthesis between eremitic contemplation and charitable action, deeply rooted in the Franciscan charism. Nicknamed the "Sunflower of God" (Girasol de Dios) for his constant search for the divine will and his orientation toward the poorest, he saw in every sufferer the face of the suffering Christ (Jesus the Nazarene). Although the male branch of the Hospital Brothers died out at the end of the 19th century, Father Cristóbal's legacy endures today through the congregation of the Hospital Sisters of Jesus the Nazarene (Franciscanas Hospitalarias de Jesús Nazareno). These religious women continue to keep his charism of welcome, care, and trust in Providence alive in Spain, Europe, and the Americas.