Education owes much to St. Pedro Poveda. When he was captured on the way to martyrdom he shouted: “I am a priest of Christ!”
Editorial Staff (28/07/2026, Gaudium Press ) Today the Church celebrates, among other saints, St. Pedro Poveda Castroverde, priest, founder of the Teresian Institution, who was killed out of hatred for the faith during the Spanish Civil War.
He was born in Linares, Jaén, in 1874, with the name José Luis Francisco Javier Poveda Castroverde, the eldest of six siblings. In his home, the Christian faith occupied the principal place.
He entered the seminary early, in Jaén, but later transferred to the Seminary of Guadix (Granada) for economic reasons, since he had won a scholarship for that seminary. At the same time that he pursued ecclesiastical studies, he also completed civil studies.
He was ordained a priest in 1897.
His labors continued and, moreover, multiplied: he continued studying, taught catechism, preached popular missions, and served as spiritual director of seminarians. Yet he still found time to found the Schools of the Sacred Heart, intended for the children who lived in the Caves of Guadix. There these children received free education, and in addition, he provided food and clothing to the neediest who lived in the outskirts of the city.
Covadonga, Royal Chaplain, Founder
In 1906 he was made a canon of the Basilica of Covadonga. He would remain at this shrine until 1913.
Little by little grace led him to become increasingly concerned with the Christian formation of the human person. It became ever clearer to him that good education was necessary, even for purely human advancement, so that people might combat poverty and illness.
Thinking about the needs of education in Spain, he founded in Oviedo the first Academy of the Teresian Institution. In 1913 he returned to Jaén, where he met Josefa Segovia, who would become his right hand and co-founder of the Institution. Soon the Academies spread throughout Spain; by 1921 they were already present in twelve localities. In 1924 the Teresian Institution obtained pontifical approval as a Pious Union. The Teresian Institution is an international association of Catholic professionals dedicated to promoting schools and universities, social assistance centers, and publishing houses.
In 1921 he was assigned to Madrid as Chaplain of the Royal Household, while continuing to work on the expansion of the Institution. He participated in the founding of the Federation of Friends of Education, in addition to other works in favor of Catholic teachers. He was always concerned about the situation of educators, their pedagogical development, their social advancement, and their faith.
On July 27, 1936, he was arrested at his home in Madrid in the early morning hours; to those who arrested him he shouted in a determined voice: “I am a priest of Christ!” He repeated this motto several times until the following day, when he died a martyr, on July 28, 1936.
He was canonized by John Paul II during his visit to Spain in 2003.
With information from Catholic.net and Aciprensa.
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