Blessed Sebastian de Aparicio

Blessed Sebastian de Aparicio was a Spanish shepherd and farmer who emigrated to Mexico, made a fortune there hauling goods and building roads, and at the age of seventy-two became a religious brother with the Franciscans. The Church commemorates him on February 25.

He came from a poor peasant family of A Gudiña in Galicia. His biographies say that he was born on January 20, 1502, and that his parents were Juan Aparicio and Teresa del Prado. From childhood he tended sheep and worked in the fields, and he received no schooling. As a young man he set out to find work elsewhere in Spain: he was a servant in Salamanca, and then for several years he worked the land at Sanlúcar de Barrameda. With the money he earned he provided dowries for his sisters. In 1533 he sailed for New Spain, today’s Mexico.

He settled in the recently founded city of Puebla de los Ángeles. At first he farmed the land, then he turned to hauling goods. He is regarded as the man who introduced ox-drawn carts to New Spain, where until then loads had been carried on the backs of indigenous porters. His carts ran between the port of Veracruz and Mexico City. After 1542 he laid out the road from Mexico City to Zacatecas, along which silver from the mines there was soon being carried.

He acquired considerable wealth, yet he himself lived simply and gave generously to the poor. Around 1552 he sold his carts and bought a farm outside Mexico City, between Tlalnepantla and Azcapotzalco. He was already about sixty when he married. His wife soon died, and he married a second time, but his second wife also died before long. According to his biographies, he lived both marriages in chastity.

A serious illness and his second widowhood moved him to give the rest of his life to God. In 1573 he made over his property to the Poor Clares of Mexico City and for a time worked for them as a servant. In 1574, at the age of seventy-two, he received the habit at the friary of Saint Francis in Mexico City, although because of his age not all the friars wanted to admit him. A year later he made his vows as a religious brother.

After a year at the friary of Tecali he was sent to the large friary in Puebla. There he was the alms collector for the rest of his life: with an ox-drawn cart he traveled the countryside gathering grain, firewood, and food for about a hundred friars, and he shared what he received with the poor. People valued his simplicity and his cheerfulness. Stories were also told of the remarkable obedience animals showed him.

He worked almost to his last days. He died in Puebla on February 25, 1600, at the age of ninety-eight. Efforts toward his beatification began soon after his death, and Pope Pius VI proclaimed him blessed on May 17, 1789. His body rests in the church of Saint Francis in Puebla, and Mexican haulers and drivers regard him as their patron.