Peter of Saint Joseph Betancur

Saint Peter of Saint Joseph Betancur was born on March 21, 1626, in Vilaflor on the island of Tenerife in the Canary Islands. Raised in a poor family, he worked as a shepherd and learned to seek God in prayer, often retreating to a cave that later became a place of pilgrimage. Freed from indentured service as a young man, he left his homeland at twenty-three and journeyed to Guatemala, arriving with little more than faith and determination. In Antigua Guatemala he first hoped to study for the priesthood, but when this proved beyond him, he embraced a humbler path as a Franciscan tertiary, taking the name Peter of Saint Joseph. With tireless charity he taught poor children, visited hospitals and prisons, and begged alms for those most forgotten. In 1658 he began a small refuge for the sick poor that grew into a hospital under the patronage of Our Lady of Bethlehem, the seed of the Bethlemite Order. Exhausted by labor and penance, he died on April 25, 1667, revered as a father to the marginalized. He is patron of La Unión Zacapa. His feast is celebrated on April 24.