Manuel González García (bishop)

Manuel González García was born to Martín González Lara and Antonia García on 25 February 1877 in Seville and had four brothers. Out of the five (including him) he was the fourth born to his parents.

His parents were originally from Antequera, province of Malaga. They have married in the Church of San Pedro in that city and moved to Seville around 1875. His father, Martín González Lara, established a carpentry and cabinet-making workshop in 1877, and his mother, Antonia García, took care of the family and home. Manuel González had two older brothers, Francisco and Martín, and a younger sister, Antonia. Manuel Siurot was a friend of the family.

In his childhood he joined a church choir and, prior to the age of ten, served as part of the choir in the Cathedral of Seville. Following the realization of his religious vocation during his late childhood, he enlisted in the seminary of Seville at the age of twelve in September 1889 for studies for the priesthood. It was there that he wrote: "If I would be born a thousand times; a thousand times I would be a priest". He excelled in all his studies and was held in high regard by his teachers. He earned his doctorates in both theology and canon law. He also travelled to Rome to commemorate a jubilee of Pope Leo XIII.

He received the subdiaconate in 1900 and also received the diaconate that same year. He was ordained to the priesthood on 21 September 1901 by the Archbishop of Seville Marcelo Spinola y Maestre - future cardinal and Blessed - in the chapel of the episcopal palace of Seville. While a seminarian, García worked at Spinola's newspaper, El Correo de Andalucía. He celebrated his first Mass on 29 September 1901 in the Church of the Holy Trinity.[2] It was during his first Mass that he entrusted himself to the intercession of Mary, Help of Christians.

In 1902, Bishop Spinola sent him to preach a mission in one of the parishes, and Garcia found the church to be unclean and abandoned. He knelt before the tabernacle and decided then and there to dedicate himself to Eucharistic works in praise of Jesus Christ. One of his first positions as a new priest was to act as the chaplain of the nursing home of the Sisters of the Poor of Seville. On 1 March 1902 he was appointed as the parish priest of San Pedro de Huelva and took office there on 9 March, a week later.

In Huelva he paid careful attention to the disadvantaged people and promoted schools devoted to assisting them and bringing to them teachings pertaining to the Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ. In addition he was also concerned with the working class and helped to provide food for the children whose parents worked as miners; he did this even more so than usual during the winter of the 1913 strike the workers participated in.[4]

García, on 4 March 1910, first established the Disciples of Saint John, who were to be devoted to the Eucharist and to Saint John; the order soon spread outside of Spain, across Europe. He travelled to Rome in late 1912 and on 28 November had a private audience with Pope Pius X, who demonstrated a keen interest in his work and his devotion to the Eucharist.

Pope Benedict XV appointed him to be the Auxiliary Bishop of Malaga and the Titular Bishop of Olympus on 6 December 1915. This led to his episcopal consecration on 16 January 1916. He was appointed as the Bishop of Málaga in 1920 and held the post until Pope Pius XI appointed him as the Bishop of Palencia in 1935. He received the gratitude and the affection of all, including King Alfonso XIII, who stated in a telegram: "I greet with affection and reverently kiss his pastoral ring".[4] He founded the Eucharistic Missionaries of Nazareth while in Palencia and went on to also found the Children of Reparation, as well as the Disciples of Saint John.[2] On 11 May 1936, the episcopal palace of Malaga caught on fire and the fire saw the destruction of art and archival materials, and Garcia came into the palace through the backdoor to see the arsonists who lit the fire.

Tomb in Palencia.

García fell ill in 1939 during a visit to Zaragoza which saw him transferred to Madrid for treatment. He died in 1940 in a clinic and was buried in the Cathedral of Palencia, where he requested to be buried so that he could be close to the tabernacle. His wish was: "I ask to be buried next to a tabernacle, so that my bones, after death, as my tongue and my pen in life, are saying to those who pass: there is Jesus! There it is! Do not leave him abandoned!"

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