Apostle of California. Hailed as California's second apostle of Saint Junípero Serra, "The Holy Man of Santa Clara" was a native of Montblanc, Spain, who receiving the habit of Saint Francis at Barcelona on April 4, 1777, was ordained priest around the year 1785. Obtaining permission to minister at the missions in California, he sailed from Cádiz in October 1786, joining the famous missionary college of San Fernando in Mexico City. Assigned to the Mission of Santa Clara in 1794, where he was to labour until his death, Friar Magín soon became famed for his miracles and prophecies, as well as for his virtues. A deeply ascetic figure who observed the rule to the word, using the discipline and a penitential girdle, tasting nothing till noon and eating only a gruel of corn and milk in the evenings, out of atonement he never consumed meat, fish, eggs or vine. Suffering intensely from chronic inflammatory rheumatism, which developed soon after his arrival in California, such that in his last years he could neither walk nor stand unassisted, he nevertheless went on visiting the sick and preaching in Indian and Spanish, seated in a chair at the altar-rail. For years he travelled on foot even when his condition was already leaving its toll, without however a word of complaint ever escaping his lips. Numerous are the testimonies of sanctity that surround his ascetic life. A devoted image of Christ Crucified in front of which Father Catalá used to spend many hours in prayer and contemplation, often through the night, was seen leaning forward in commendation to his preaching, while the friar himself was witnessed on various occasions levitated from the floor while in prayer before this Crucifix and that, while so elevated, embraced by the Christ. Donned with the gifts of bilocation, prophecy and levitatation, he miraculously cured the ill by praying over them, and when a storm of locusts threatened the mission's crops and thus livelihood, he led prayers in the chapel, with witness accounts stating that he insect cloud eventually deposited itself in the nearby Pacific. Expectant mothers who would ask for his prayers never experienced any sort of harm, having pleaded his intercession both before and after his death. Predicting among others that the Santa Clara Mission would be transferred under jurisdiction of another Order, fulfilled when the Jesuits eventually started heading both the university and the mission, he also foretold that a large city would be built around the Bay to the North and that it would fall due to earthquake and fire. As we know, San Francisco has since been built, only to fall in 1906 due to earthquake and fire, being since rebuilt. Predicting as well that Santa Clara Valley would become a place for people of many nations, twice he applied for and received permission to retire and move back to Mexico City due to his health, however he could not bring himself to leave the people whom he loved and served so deeply. Thus, after the second time, he vowed to never leave them, no matter how bad his health would turn. Unable to walk or stand, for the last two years of his life, Father Catalá was confined to his bed. Laid in redwood coffin, throngs of people filed to see for for a last time, grabbing pieces of his hair and habit in the process to conserve as relics. Through the process, the coffin was left in a wreck while his habit was gone, with the friars having to revest him in a new one. Laid to rest in an unmarked grave at the foot of the Altar of the Crucifix in the sanctuary of the Mission church, his remains were transferred to the Gospel side of the church's small altar in 1907. With so many miracles and favors granted through his intercession, in 1884 fellow Catalonian, Archbishop Josep Sadoc y Alemany OP., of San Francisco, opened Father Magín's beatification cause, sixty four years prior to that of Saint Junípero Serra himself.

Bio by Eman #46572312