St. Turibius of Mogrovejo

Who they were

Turibius was a celebrated Spanish law professor, and a layman, when Philip II named him Archbishop of Lima. He protested the appointment in writing on the reasonable grounds that he was not a priest. Rome ordained him straight through the orders and shipped him to an archdiocese sprawling hundreds of leagues of coast, Andes and jungle.

What the canonist did next filled twenty five years. He learned Quechua and required his clergy to. He produced catechisms in the Indigenous languages. He convened the councils that organized the South American Church for centuries. And, his signature, he visited the entire impossible territory on foot and muleback, repeatedly, baptizing and confirming in villages no bishop had ever reached, sleeping on the ground, and contesting the colonists' abuses of the Indigenous peoples to their faces and in law. Among the hundreds of thousands he confirmed, the records hold two names worth knowing: St. Rose of Lima and St. Martin de Porres. He died on visitation, in a remote church, in 1606.

Why people turn to St. Turibius of Mogrovejo

Bishops and pastors of impossible territories, and every leader whose real job is showing up at the far edge of the map. Advocates for Indigenous peoples, with St. Kateri Tekakwitha. Lawyers drafted into ministry.

How to ask their intercession

For your own bishop by name, which is a prayer almost nobody prays. And for anyone handed a job they told the truth about not being qualified for.