Cristobal of Santa Catalina
Spanish hermit priest
Feast: 24 July (not on the universal Roman calendar; kept in the Roman Martyrology or local calendars)
Who they were
Cristóbal Fernández Valladolid was born at Mérida in Spain on 25 July 1638, the second of six children of a humble family. At ten he knocked at the door of the Franciscan friary of Our Lady of La Antigua. Guided by the Dominicans, he was ordained at Badajoz on 10 March 1663.
He founded the Hospitaller Congregation of Jesus of Nazareth in Córdoba, a witness of charity to the suffering. Exhausted, he fell victim to an epidemic and died on 24 July 1690. He was the first Blessed of Pope Francis's pontificate.
The miracles
The Dicastery's biography does not describe the miracles approved in the cause.
Why that counted as sanctity
A priest who gave his strength, and in the end his life, to the sick poor of Córdoba.
The cause
The cause continues. No postulation address is published here yet. Favours received through this person’s intercession, and offers of help, are best sent to the religious order or congregation they belonged to, or to the diocese where the cause was opened; either will pass them to the postulation.
- Dicastery for the Causes of Saints - biography: Cristoforo di Santa Caterina
- Wikidata Q13456078 — dates, feast day and identifiers (CC0)
- English Wikipedia — Cristobal of Saint Catherine (CC BY-SA)
Checked against the sources listed on 21 September 2026. Corrections welcome.