To Have The Smell Of The Sheep: St José Gabriel Brochero
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| José Gabriel Brochero riding his mule c. 1870–1880. |
e became affectionately known as “the Gaucho priest” and the “cowboy priest.” He was beatified on 14 September 2013 after a miracle was recognized as attributed to him. He was known to travel long distances in Argentina on the back of a mule dressed in a sombrero and a poncho to serve the needs of the Christian faith throughout his huge parish. He became well known to his parishioners and made efforts to improve all aspects of their involvement in church life.
He became blind and deaf towards the end of his life. Throughout his travels to meet parishioners he would bring with him the image of the Blessed Virgin Mary, his Mass kit, and a prayer book. He resigned from his position as pastor on 5 February 1908 and returned the following 30 March back home to live with his sisters. He was canonized by Pope Francis on 16th October 2016, bestowing sainthood on the poncho-wearing pastor with whom the first Argentine pope shares many similarities, from a taste for mate tea to a dedication to bringing the ministry to even the most isolated people living in the frontiers. Even at the time of Brochero's beatification, Francis wrote a letter to Argentina's bishops praising Brochero for having had the "smell of his sheep." A papal biographer, Austen Ivereigh, says Brochero exemplifies Francis' idea of a pastor. Among the parallels shared by the two Argentines is Brochero's spirituality, which is deeply rooted in the Jesuit spiritual exercises dear to the pope.
Francis honored Brochero, who adores mate tea like him, along with six others in a Mass before a crowd of 80,000 in St Peter's Square, saying the new saints, “thanks to prayer, had generous and steadfast hearts.” “The saints are men and women who enter fully into the mystery of prayer... who struggle with prayer, letting the Holy Spirit pray and struggle in them,” the pope said. Also made into saints were two Italian priests, Lodovico Pavoni and Alfonso Maria Fusco, French martyr Salomone Leclercq, French nun Elisabeth of the Trinity, Spanish bishop Manuel Gonzalez Garcia and Mexican layman Jose Sanchez del Rio. Fr JM Manzano SJ
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