Salvador Valera Parra

Venerable

Salvador Valera Parra
ChurchRoman Catholic Church
Orders
OrdinationApril 4, 1840
by Bishop José Antonio Azpeitia
Personal details
Born(1816-02-27)February 27, 1816
Huércal-Overa, Almería, Spain
DiedMarch 15, 1889(1889-03-15) (aged 73)
Huércal-Overa, Almería, Spain
NationalitySpanish

Salvador Valera Parra (27 February 1816 – 15 March 1889), also known as "Cura Valera", was a Spanish Catholic priest who served in the provinces of Murcia and Almería. He was declared Venerable by Pope Francis in March 2021.[1] On 20 June 2025, Pope Leo XIV approved a miracle attributed to the intercession of Fr. Valera, opening the door to his beatification.[2]

Biography

Early life

Salvador Valera Parra was born in the town of Huércal-Overa on 27 February 1816 to a family of farmers.

At the age of fourteen, he transferred to the city of Murcia to pursue his studies at the Major Seminary of San Fulgencio. He was welcomed in Murcia by his aunt María Josefa, abbess of a convent of Capuchin Poor Clares, where he lived in a nearby house donated to the convent.

Priestly ordination

Salvador was ordained a priest at the age of 24 on 4 April 1840. It seems that the ordination took place in the city of Alicante, since the Bishop of Cartagena, José Antonio Azpeitia, had moved to the locality of Tudela for medical reasons.[3] About six days later, he celebrated his first Mass on a Friday that spring in the convent of the Poor Clares, which had been a faithful witness to the efforts, sacrifices, and dedication of the young Salvador. With this gesture, Fr. Valera expressed his gratitude for all of the help he had received.

Days after celebrating his first Mass, Fr. Valera returned to his town of Huércal-Overa.

First assignments

After his time in Huércal-Overa, Fr. Valera was not yet thirty-three when he took charge of the Church of San Lázaro (Alhama de Murcia) in Alhama de Murcia. In this town he lived simply and austerely, bordering poverty, because the residences of the church were some attached barns. He left Alhama in late May of 1851.

In the same year, the Diocese of Cartagena began oposiciones, a system of competitive examinations where priests competed for desirable parishes. Fr. Valera won the church of Nuestra Señora de la Asunción, returning to his hometown as a parish priest, where he would remain for the next 13 years.

In 1864, Bishop Landeira of Cartagena, after much prayer, called Fr. Valera to govern the parish of Cartagena, the largest parish in the diocese at that time.

In 1865, the city of Cartagena suffered a cholera epidemic. Fr. Valera fully dedicated himself to bring hope and aid to the sick and their families, so that there were no patients who did not receive his help. Such was the character of Don Salvador, that the Cartagena City Council recognized his labor in that year's official record, and gifted him a chalice.

On 26 September 1868, Spain's prime minister, General Prim was received by the civil and military authority of the city, who informed him about the virtues of the parish priest Don Salvador Valera.

When General Prim wished to take Fr. Valera to the capital, Madrid, the priest only wished for one thing: to return to his dear town of Huércal-Overa.

The Bishop of Murcia and later Archbishop of Valencia said on the occasion of a priestly ordination: "I only ask you to look at yourselves in the example that I have in Huércal-Overa, in the priest Salvador Valera Parra, in whose example your bishop also looks."

Return to Huércal-Overa

At the end of the year 1868 his wish was fulfilled, and Salvador Valera returned permanently to Huércal-Overa, with much celebration from his hometown. In the years following, the town witnessed many documented miracles.[4]

Beatification

In 1954, when the Bishop of Cartagena began the first steps of the process of beatification, countless individuals gave testimony of his virtues and merits.

Since 1989, the year in which the beatification process was reactivated, many steps have been taken this endeavor by the Association for the Beatification of Fr. Valera.

His life has been the subject of several books,[5][6][7] and a documentary[8] in 2010. A novena in his honor was published in 2019.[9]

On 18 March 2021, Pope Francis declared Don Salvador Valera to be "Venerable" because he had lived the heroic virtues, was a model of a diocesan priest, and was a good and humble shepherd of his people.[10]

The beatification of Don Salvador Valera depends on a singular miracle attributed to his intercession. On the night of 14 January 2007 in the Memorial Hospital of Rhode Island, USA, a boy named Tyquan Hall was born via emergency C-section, pale and lifeless, with a slow and weak pulse. One hour after the neonatal recovery protocol was initiated, there were no signs of improvement, and the nurse could no longer find a pulse. The doctor who was treating him, Dr. Juan Sánchez-Esteban, was a native of Huércal Overa, and, out of desperation, asked for the intercession of his countryman with the prayer: "Father Valera, I have done everything possible; now it's your turn (Cura Valera, he hecho todo lo que ha sido posible, ahora te toca a ti)." Dr. Sánchez was beginning to walk down the hall to notify the boy's parents of his death when the nurse reported that the child was recovering. Minutes after the doctor's prayer, the boy began to breathe again, and his heart began to beat normally. After this difficult episode, Tyquan should have been damaged developmentally in language and mobility due to cerebral palsy, but he remained without any such effects, learning to speak at 18 months and to walk at 2 years.[11][12]

The canonical process of investigation into this supposed miracle was conducted by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Providence in Rhode Island, USA from 8–19 September 2014. On 26 June 2015, the miracle's validity was declared on the diocesan level. After the investigation and study by the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, the miracle positively passed the study of historians and theologians as well as a complex medical consultation. The Cardinals and Bishops of the Dicastery then presented the conclusions to Pope Leo XIV, who, on 20 June 2025, approved the miracle.

The miracle's approval opened the door for his beatification, which will take place at the next beatification ceremony, expected to be in 2026.

Recognition

Fr. Valera has much importance in the town of his birth. A monument,[13] a street,[14] and an institute—the Cura Valera Secondary Education Institute[15]—are named after him in Huércal-Overa.

Every year on February 27, Fr. Valera's birthday, his hometown celebrates a Mass in his honor, followed by floral offerings in front of the monument which bears his name.[16][17]

References

  1. ^ "EL CURA VALERA DE HUÉRCAL-OVERA ES DECLARADO "VENERABLE"" [Father Valera of Huércal-Overa is declared "Venerable"] (in Spanish). 2021-03-18. Retrieved 18 March 2021.
  2. ^ "Promulgation of Decrees of the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints". press.vatican.va. Retrieved 2025-07-19.
  3. ^ Vicent y Portillo, Gregorio; de Cascales, Francisco (1889). Biblioteca histórica de Cartagena: Colección de obras, memorias, discursos ... [Cartagena Historical Library: Collection of works, memories, speeches ...] (in Spanish). Madrid: Montegrifo. p. 137.
  4. ^ Jiménes Navarro, Antonio (1942). El cura Valera y sus cosas (in Spanish) (2nd ed.). ANEL (published 1993). ISBN 9788486500375. {{cite book}}: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)
  5. ^ Lázaro Sánchez, Miguel J. (2010). Asociación Procanonización del Cura Valera (ed.). Salvador Valera Parra Pastor bonus et humilis (in Spanish). ISBN 978-84-614-2817-5.
  6. ^ JIménez Navarro, Antonio (2012). Asociación Procanonización del Cura Valera (ed.). El Cura Valera y sus cosas (in Spanish). ISBN 84-86500-37-0.
  7. ^ Anónimo (2014). Asociación Procanonización del Cura Valera (ed.). Biografía breve de autor anónimo.
  8. ^ huercalense2010 (2010-12-29). Trailer de la película del Cura Valera. Retrieved 2025-07-19 – via YouTube.{{cite AV media}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  9. ^ "Ya disponible la novena y el DVD sobre Salvador Valera Parra, "el Cura Valera"" [The novena and DVD about Salvador Valera Parra, "El Cura Valera," are now available] (in Spanish). Diocese of Almería. 4 March 2019. Retrieved 19 July 2025.
  10. ^ "El Cura Valera es declarado venerable por la Santa Sede". 18 March 2021. Retrieved 18 March 2021.
  11. ^ "EL CURA VALERA DE HUÉRCAL-OVERA SERÁ PROCLAMADO BEATO" [Father Valera of Huércal-Overa will be declared Blessed]. Diocese de Almería (in Spanish). 2025-06-20. Retrieved 2025-07-12.
  12. ^ "Salvador Valera Parra". www.causesanti.va (in Italian). Retrieved 2025-07-19.
  13. ^ "Monumento al Cura Valera - Turismo y Cultura Huércal-Overa" (in Spanish). 2025-01-17. Retrieved 2025-07-19.
  14. ^ "Calle del Cura Valera - Callejero de Huércal-Overa - Callejero.net". huercal-overa.callejero.net (in Spanish). Retrieved 2025-07-19.
  15. ^ "Página web del instituto Cura Valera" (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 22 January 2021. Retrieved 20 October 2021.
  16. ^ "Huércal Overa recuerda una año más al Cura Valera" [Huércal Overa remembers Father Valera once again this year] (in Spanish). Diocese of Almería. Retrieved 2021-03-18.
  17. ^ "Fiestas y Tradiciones" [Festivals and Traditions]. Turismo y Cultura Huércal Overa (in Spanish). Retrieved 2025-07-25.
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