Juan Sáez Hurtado

After his ordination, Father Juan Sáez Hurtado exercised his ministry in various parishes of the Diocese of Cartagena, notably in Molina de Segura, Bormate, La Gineta (Albacete), and Beniaján. Appointed to the San Juan Bautista parish in Alquerías, he remained there for only four months: in 1936, the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War and the violent religious persecution that accompanied it forced him to flee. Protected and escorted by his parishioners, he took refuge first in his family home, then in a country house to escape the anticlerical militias.

After the end of the conflict in 1939, he resumed his pastoral service in Lorca, Torreagüera, and then in Aljucer, where he was appointed pastor of the Nuestra Señora de los Dolores parish from July 1945 to March 1950. Affectionately nicknamed "Don Juan el Bueno" (Don Juan the Good) by the inhabitants, he devoted himself tirelessly to families ruined by the war, reorganized parish life, rebuilt the church and its bell tower, built the parish house as well as schools, and founded branches of Catholic Action. In recognition of his work, the municipality of Aljucer dedicated a square to him as early as December 1950. He also served as chaplain to the Sisters of Jesus Christ Crucified at the Villa Pilar convent.

In February 1955, he was appointed pastor of the San Pablo parish in Abarán, a position he held for seventeen years. There, he deployed intense charitable activity for the poor and the sick, and became the main promoter of the construction of the new San Juan Bautista church in Abarán, which constitutes the major work of his life.

In 1972, weakened by illness, his bishop proposed that he retire and take up a position at the Cathedral of Murcia. From 1972 to 1978, he lived humbly in a small house attached to the cathedral, spending most of his days in the confessional and performing the duties of a sacristan. He then returned to his hometown of Alcantarilla, where he continued to assist the local parish as an assistant priest.

In 1981, his health deteriorated severely due to gallstones. Operated on for his gallbladder the following year, he suffered severe post-operative complications. Juan Sáez Hurtado passed away on August 8, 1982, at the hospital in El Palmar (Murcia). His mortal remains were transferred and interred in a chapel of the Cathedral of Murcia.

The reputation for holiness of Juan Sáez Hurtado led to the opening of his cause for beatification. The diocesan inquiry took place within the Diocese of Cartagena (Murcia) from October 30, 1993, to May 9, 1997, collecting the testimony of 171 people. The legal validity of this inquiry was recognized by a decree on December 18, 1998, and the Positio was submitted to Rome in 2002.

On January 20, 2017, Pope Francis authorized the Congregation for the Causes of Saints to promulgate the decree recognizing his heroic virtues, thereby conferring upon him the title of Venerable.

The spirituality of Juan Sáez Hurtado is deeply Eucharistic and Marian. His contemporaries describe him as a man of radical humility, whose true "television" was the tabernacle, before which he spent long hours in nocturnal adoration. His love for Christ was translated into concrete charity toward the most destitute, never hesitating to solicit the more affluent to redistribute their gifts to the poor.

His legacy remains alive in the Murcia region, particularly in Aljucer and Abarán, where squares bear his name and where his memory is celebrated each year on August 8, the anniversary of his birth into heaven.