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José Gabriel Brochero
Argentinian presbyter and saint (1840–1914)
Feast: 16 March (not on the universal Roman calendar; kept in the Roman Martyrology or local calendars)
The Vatican record
- 21 January 2016 — Miracle through their intercession approved (decree list, 2016)
Who they were
José Gabriel del Rosario Brochero was born on 16 March 1840 at Carreta Quemada, near Santa Rosa de Río Primero in the province of Córdoba, Argentina, the fourth of ten children of a farming family, and ordained on 4 November 1866.
The 'Cura Brochero' served a vast mountain area with no roads or schools, building churches, schools and roads for the poor. He caught leprosy, it was said, from embracing a man abandoned by the roadside, and died blind on 26 January 1914.
The miracles
An 11-month-old boy — Argentina
A baby of eleven months suffered catastrophic head injuries, with a fractured skull, bleeding on and within the brain and a stroke, and his heart and breathing stopped twice for long periods. He recovered after prayers for Cura Brochero's intercession.
A little girl — Argentina — 2013
A girl suffered a head injury with a large blood clot on the brain, an extensive stroke on one side and damage on the other, seizures and septic shock. After many specialist tests on the illness and on her present health, the Vatican's medical board found her recovery scientifically inexplicable on 10 September 2015.
Why that counted as sanctity
The case of an 11-month-old boy was examined by the Church's doctors and theologians and approved as a miracle on 20 December 2012, opening the way to beatification. Beatification followed on 14 September 2013. The case of a little girl was examined by the Church's doctors and theologians and approved as a miracle on 21 January 2016, opening the way to canonisation. Canonisation followed on 16 October 2016 by Francis.
Connected on this site
- Saturnina Rodríguez de Zavalía Blessed“She worked with St José Gabriel Brochero, the 'gaucho priest', sending sixteen of her sisters to a school he had founded.” — this site's research
- Dicastery for the Causes of Saints - biography of St José Gabriel del Rosario Brochero, with both miracles
- Dicastery for the Causes of Saints — promulgated decrees (causesanti.va), summarised in our own words
- Wikidata Q5939913 — dates, feast day and identifiers (CC0)
- English Wikipedia — Jose Gabriel del Rosario Brochero (CC BY-SA)
Checked against the sources listed on 21 September 2026. Corrections welcome.