Saint José María Rubio

He was born on July 22, 1864, in Dalías, in the province of Almería in Andalusia. ¹³⁵ The Holy See's biography says his parents were farmers and that he was one of twelve children, six of whom died young. ¹ In 1875 he began secondary school in Almería, and the next year, feeling called to the priesthood, he moved to the diocesan seminary. ¹

The sources tell the rest of his training a little differently. The Holy See's English biography says he went in 1878 to the major seminary of Granada, where he studied philosophy, theology and canon law, and was ordained on September 24, 1887. ¹ The Dicastery for the Causes of Saints and the Jesuits say he studied at the seminaries of Granada and Madrid and was ordained in Madrid in 1887. ³⁵ An article on es.catholic.net adds that he said his first Mass at the altar of Our Lady of Consolation, in what is now the church of San Isidro. ⁶

He already wanted to be a Jesuit, but could not be one for nineteen years. ¹ The Holy See says that circumstances held him back, because he was looking after an elderly priest who needed him; es.catholic.net says he put off his Jesuit vocation until the death of his mentor. ¹⁶ The Jesuits say he had to be content, as he liked to put it, to count himself a "Friend of the Society." ⁵

He was a curate at Chinchón and then parish priest at Estremera, two towns of the diocese of Madrid. ¹³⁶ In 1890 the bishop brought him into the city. ¹ He served as a synodal examiner and as a notary of the diocesan curia, taught metaphysics, Latin and pastoral theology at the seminary, and was chaplain to the Bernardine nuns. ¹³ es.catholic.net adds that he took a doctorate in canon law. ⁶

In 1905 he made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, where, the Jesuits say, he had deep spiritual experiences. ¹⁵ The next year, at forty-two, he entered the Jesuit novitiate in Granada, and he made his religious profession on October 12, 1908. ¹⁵⁶

From 1911 he lived at the Jesuits' Professed House in Madrid, and he worked in the city until shortly before his death. ⁵ The Holy See says that the faithful came looking for him from the early morning hours for confession and spiritual direction, and that the Bishop of Madrid himself called him "The Apostle of Madrid." ¹ John Paul II, beatifying him, recalled how he worked "from the confessional and from the pulpit," finding the right counsel, the right word, and the penance, at times demanding, that a soul needed; the words are translated here from the Italian. ³

His preaching was simple. ¹³ The Jesuits say it was "absent of any rhetoric," and that in confession he used to tell his penitents, "Leave this to the mercy of God." ⁵ He preached retreats on the Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius, and John Paul II said in 2003 that in them he formed many Christians who would later die as martyrs in Spain. ¹²

His care for the poor was organized through the people he directed. ¹⁵ Under his guidance, the Holy See says, lay men and women opened free schools that taught both academic subjects and trades, looked after the sick and disabled and tried to find work for the unemployed. ¹ es.catholic.net names the places: catechism in Cuatro Caminos, Puente de Vallecas and the Matadero, Sunday schools in Mesón de Paredes, visits to La Ventilla and Entrevías, and the ragpickers of Madrid. ⁶ He organized popular missions in the poorest parts of the city, because, the Holy See says, he believed the poor must be helped both spiritually and materially and loved for their own dignity. ¹⁵

He stayed in the background. ¹ The Holy See says he was the heart of all these works but let his collaborators take the lead, giving lay people the main responsibility so that they would grow in their own gifts. ¹ He promoted the work of the Marías de los Sagrarios, which es.catholic.net says he founded in Madrid, and he took part in founding the Damas Apostólicas del Sagrado Corazón. ³⁶

His motto, John Paul II said at the canonization, was "Do what God wants and want what God does!" ² The Jesuits say it described what they call his availability: he was always ready to take up or drop a work he was engaged in, to follow his superior's will. ⁵ To the lay people he formed he liked to say, in John Paul II's Italian of 1985 translated here, "One must have drive!" ³

All of it came from prayer. ¹ The Holy See says that adoration of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament was the center of his life, and the Dicastery speaks of his love for the Eucharist and his devotion to the Heart of Jesus. ¹³ The Jesuits add that his tireless activity was carried out in weak health, and sprang from long hours with the Lord in the chapel. ⁵

He died on May 2, 1929, at Aranjuez, in the novitiate of the Jesuit province. ¹³⁵ The Jesuits say many people traveled there to see him one last time, and quote a national newspaper: "During the 18 years of his stay in Madrid, he won universal affection." ⁵ In 1953, es.catholic.net says, his remains were moved to the cloister of the Jesuit church on the calle Serrano in Madrid, and crowds came to venerate them. ⁶

John Paul II beatified him on October 6, 1985, together with two other Spanish Jesuits, Diego Luis de San Vitores and Francisco Gárate. ³ On May 4, 2003, in the Plaza de Colón in Madrid, he canonized him with Pedro Poveda, Genoveva Torres, Ángela de la Cruz and Maravillas de Jesús, calling them all "true disciples of the Lord and witnesses of his Resurrection." ²³

None of the sources consulted for this page names a patronage for Saint José María Rubio, so none is given here. ¹²³⁴⁵⁶ He is known by a title instead, the Apostle of Madrid, which the Holy See says the Bishop of Madrid gave him and John Paul II used when he beatified him. ¹³

Saint José María Rubio's feast is kept on May 2, the day he died. ³⁴ The Dicastery for the Causes of Saints gives it as his liturgical memorial, and the Roman Martyrology remembers him that day as a priest of the Society of Jesus who "distinguished himself in hearing penitents, in preaching spiritual exercises and in visiting the poor of the Madrid area," words translated here from the Italian. ³⁴

He waited nineteen years for the life he wanted, and the sources do not suggest he spent them resenting it. ¹⁵ He taught, heard confessions and looked after an old priest, and called himself a friend of the Jesuits until he could be one. ¹⁵

John Paul II, beatifying him, said that his life teaches that it is a docile and humble attitude toward God's action that makes a Christian progress and turns him into an instrument of salvation. ³ The motto says the same thing in a single line. ²

His work for the poor was not done alone. He formed people, handed them the work and stepped back, and the schools and missions of the Madrid outskirts were, in the Holy See's telling, as much theirs as his. ¹⁵