Práxedes Fernández García

The life of Práxedes Fernández García is a model of holiness lived in the most ordinary daily life. After her widowhood, she dedicated herself entirely to the Christian education of her children and to the secular apostolate. Her son Enrique entered the Dominicans (Order of Preachers). During his formation, Práxedes wrote him 47 spiritual letters of great depth, which testify to her intimate union with God and her apostolic zeal. These writings would constitute a centerpiece of her canonization process.

In 1934, she moved to Oviedo and became a member of the Dominican Third Order (Lay Dominican Fraternities). She displayed boundless charity toward the most destitute. She welcomed the indigent into her home, washed them, clothed them, and had them eat at her table. She regularly visited the sick, especially those suffering from tuberculosis, without fearing contagion. During the 1934 Revolution in Asturias, marked by anti-clerical violence, the burning of churches, and the assassination of priests, she courageously maintained her faith without ever yielding to hatred or the desire for revenge. Her devotion to the poor earned her the respect of all, including the revolutionaries.

The reputation for holiness of Práxedes Fernández García spread rapidly after her death, both in Asturias and beyond the Spanish borders. Numerous figures in the Church expressed their admiration for her life of faith and charity.

The diocesan informative process for her beatification opened in Oviedo on November 7, 1957, and closed on September 16, 1960. A supplementary process was then conducted from June 25, 1973, to April 4, 1975. The decree on the validity of the diocesan inquiry was promulgated by the Congregation for the Causes of Saints on November 11, 1994. The Positio on her heroic virtues was published in 1996.

On December 6, 2014, Pope Francis authorized the Congregation for the Causes of Saints to publish the decree recognizing the heroic virtues of Práxedes Fernández García, thereby conferring upon her the title of venerable. For her beatification to be pronounced, the official recognition of a miracle attributed to her intercession is required.

The spirituality of the Venerable Práxedes Fernández García rests upon a total acceptance of the divine will through the trials of life (the "way of the cross"), an intense devotion to the Eucharist and to the Virgin Mary (notably through the recitation of the rosary), and a compassionate love for one's neighbor. She saw Christ in every suffering or needy person. Her letters to her son Enrique reveal a mystical soul deeply anchored in the mystery of the Resurrection, which she considered the most beautiful of Christian feasts. Her legacy is that of a laywoman, mother, and widow, who knew how to transform ordinary tasks and personal tragedies into a path of evangelical heroism and peace.