As Pope Leo responded to the recent U.S. capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro by invoking the intercession of newly canonized Saint Jose Gregorio Hernandez, the moment carried special meaning for a B.C. man who is related to the Venezuelan saint. 

Vancouver engineer Alejandro Carvallo’s grandfather was the nephew of St. Jose Gregorio, making Carvallo the saint’s great-grand-nephew. He says the canonization of Venezuela’s first male saint has given the country a heavenly champion in these challenging and hopeful times.

Venezuelans he knows are supportive of the U.S. capture of Nicolas Maduro and have been praying for Jose Gregorio’s intercession, Carvallo told The B.C. Catholic. “I think there are many people praying and asking Jose Gregorio for help — to go to God and use his influence to ask God to help the Venezuelan people.”

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Canada’s Venezuelans also welcomed Pope Leo’s call to prayer through the new saint amid the ongoing political and economic turmoil, he said.

“The good of the beloved Venezuelan people must prevail over every other consideration,” the Pontiff said on Jan. 4 in remarks after the Angelus at the Vatican following news of the capture. “This must lead to the overcoming of violence, and to the pursuit of paths of justice and peace.”

“I pray for all this, and I invite you to pray too,” Pope Leo added, “entrusting our prayer to the intercession of Our Lady of Coromoto,” the patroness of Venezuela.

Carvallo, who attended the Oct. 19 canonization, said the new saint is especially important for his family. “He was very close to my father’s family — he was family more than a saint for us. In my father’s house there was a bed and a nightstand that belonged to Jose Gregorio. I slept there.” The items are now in the Jose Gregorio Hernandez museum in Isnotu, Venezuela.

Even before his canonization, Venezuelans remembered Jose Gregorio as an important figure in their history, and his reputation has remained significant since his death in 1919.

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“Even when I was small, I would see bus drivers with an image of him on the dashboard,” Carvallo recalled. “I went into corner stores and I would see his image there.”

St. Jose Gregorio Hernandez was born in the small mountain town of Isnotu in the Venezuelan Andes. He is remembered as a generous humanitarian and doctor, responsible for modernizing Venezuela’s medical system and teaching early generations of physicians at the Central University of Venezuela in Caracas.

He would often forgo payment if a patient could not afford his services. He died after being hit by a car while delivering medicine to a patient. 

Less well known is his work as an author and philosopher. He wrote books on medicine and philosophy, engaging emerging ideas about Darwinism versus creationism and other subjects.

Among his students was Carvallo’s grandfather, who lived with the saint for nearly a decade while studying medicine. “He was like a father to my grandfather,” Carvallo said.

Still, a man does not become a saint simply for his professional reputation and acumen, and St. Jose Gregorio was deeply committed to his faith. To many, his life is a lesson in accepting God’s providence. Even after poor health forced him to leave seminary formation twice, he eventually took vows as a lay Franciscan.

Carvallo recounts a family story about Hernandez’s seminary director telling him, “God must not want you to be a priest — he wants you to be a doctor.”

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A century after his death, Carvallo says Jose Gregorio continues to teach him to pursue holiness in everyday life.

“I am an engineer, and his example makes me feel like I should be a better engineer and a better person,” he said. “You don’t need to be a priest to be a saint.”