ST JOS GABRIEL BROCHERO (1840-1914)

Diego Fares S.J.

On October 16, 2016 Pope Francis will canonize the Argentine priest Jos Gabriel del Rosario
Brochero, previously beatified in 2013, during this pontificate. He will then be the first saint who was
born and died in the Argentine republic.
Cura Brochero, the priest Brochero, as he is commonly known, was born in Villa Santa Rosa,
in the province of Crdoba, March 16, 1840 and died in what today is called Villa Cura Brochero January
26, 1914. In 1869 he became the curate of SantAlberto and for 40 years traveled, on his mule called
Malacara1, the 4,336 square kilometers of his parish. Brochero followed, visited, organized socially
and evangelized his 10,000 parishioners: people of humble condition, impoverished people because of the
impossibility to trade their products, dispersed among small towns, isolated by the Sierra Grandes that
separated them from the large inhabited centers.
To connect with his parishioners who lived in the valley on the other side of the Sierras was
Brocheros preoccupation for his whole life: to connect his people with God, through the Spiritual
Exercises: to connect people among themselves, through initiatives for the common good, to which he
repeatedly invited them; to connect that territory with the rest of the country.
Brochero built with his people, by dint of picks and shovels, the road of Alte Vette: 200
kilometers that finally united them with the capital. There he got the telegraph and the National Bank to
come and he dreamedin life, he was not able to translate this dream into realitythat the railroad
would come. Before being able to build the Casa di Esercizi (House of the Exercises), he brought his
parishioners repeatedly--without anyone in the group leaving2--on the back of a mule or on foot, to
make the Spiritual Exercises in Crdoba.
St Jos Gabriel carried out a pastoral work that embraced all dimensions of the life of his people,
and he did it in a creative way, constant and full of apostolic zeal. As Fr Merediz says, Brochero is
zeal3. He built churches and repaired otherss, beginning from the central nave of the church dedicated to
St Peter, from the beginning of his appointment (and he began to build it by himself, seeing that he lacked
the help of the peasants), up to the last, in the Panaolma region, that was finished when he left his
appointment in 1907.
The first rock of the Casa di Esercizi, which still today continues to bring together those doing the
Exercises, was collected in 1875. The first courses of Exercises began, before the plaster and floors were
completed, in 1887. There are records of 158 courses of Exercises guided by Brochero in his lifetime, for
a total of 38,046 people completing them.
Brochero helped everyone and he had to get help from everyone. People came to give him a
hand, and he did not pay attention to those who came, but only if he was willing and determined 4 to do
good. And he also invited everyone to do the Exercises. Regarding this, we can recall the story of his
friendship with Santo Guayama, a head gaucho, banned by the authorities, who hid in the highlands of La
1

Pope Francis said: I like to imagine today the parish priest Brochero on his mule with the white bangs (malacara-bad face) (P OPE FRANCIS,
Letter to the President of the Argentine Episcopal Conference on the occasion of the beatification of Father Jos Gabriel Brochero, September
14, 2013.

El Cura Brochero, Cartas y Sermones, Buenos Aires Guadalupe, Episcopal Conference of Argentina, 1999, Appendix VII (from now on
CEA).

J. C. MEREDEZ, El padre Brochero es fervor, in Brochero, Cruz del Eje, 2011, 7.

Letter to Jos Mayo, Panaolma, June 5, 1893, in J. G. BROCHERO, 21 cartas del Cura Brochero, Buenos Aires, Patria Grande, 1989.

Rioja. Brochero encountered him at different times in secret and began doing things to obtain a permit
from the authorities so that he could do the Exercises. He obtained a letter from the various governors
with the promise to not touch Guayama, but, while the pardon was prepared at the national level,
Guayama was captured by the police and quickly shot, before Brochero was able to do something to help
him. The priest wept at the death, because he considered him a friend who had already given sincere
proof of his loyalty: among others, he had entrusted to him all his friends 5.
In the last years of his life, Brochero contracted leprosy, becoming infected in some of his visits to the
sick. It was noted that he did not take precautions at times in sharing mate and in caring for the sick. The
infection happened at a mature age, but it could also have happened to him as a young man, since, just
ordained a priest, when an epidemic of cholera scourged the city of Crdoba, he was dedicated soul and
body to the infected people.
The Jesuit Aznar, who for 12 years traveled as a missionary the region in which Brochero had
passed through and gathered first hand testimony from the elderly of the region, tells that Seior
Brochero, as the people called him, helped to move the sick and practiced the healing massages of the
era. He assisted the dying and at any time he could be seen going towards the homes and farms of the
infected6.
Fr. Anzars book allows us to know Brochero directly just as he had been imprinted in the eyes and hearts
of his peasants. The holy priest had already foreseen this grace; he said in fact in a letter: I could sense
that I will always live in the heart of the western region, because the life of the dead is in the memory of
the living7
During his life, Brochero knew how to hide this perspective of eternity, typical of a saint. Fr. Aznar
had put it so well, that he entitled a chapter of his book Some virtues of Seior Brochero, principally that
of the ability with which he concealed his virtuous acts. The author shows that Beochero had the grace
and arts of the saints, in achieving to work with naturalness what is more arduous in virtue; and he knew
to amuse people with wisdom and ability, even using jokes, in a way that it would not be noticed in the
actions he performed []. With his Creole ways he came to hide, artfully, his virtue from the eyes of
many; in fact, they were left with a little story or phrase, that at the end, when he took leave of them [],
removed the importance of the abnegation of his acts8.
Three months before dying, Brochero wrote to his ordination companion Martin Yaaz: My dear, you
will remember that I often said of myself that I would always remain in strength, like the chesche horse
that died galloping.9. Brochero died in his bed, but his last phrase described the attitude of his soul: I
already have the harnesses on10
The Argentine Cure of Ars

CEA, Letter n. 152.

A. AZNAR, El Cura Brochero en su apostolado sacerdotal, su vida spiritual en heroismos, Buenos Aires, Paulinas, 1951, 26.

CEA, Letter n. 345 (to president Jurez Celman, in 1905).

A. AZNAR, El Cura Brochero, cit., 150-154.

CEA, Letter n. 467, Chesche is a certain color tone of piebald horses, with reddish spots.

10

J. G. BORCHERO, Yo soy yo (I am me), Buenos Aires, Patria Grande, 2013, 185.

In a word, Brochero would be the Argentine Cure of Ars. So said St John Paul II, when he was
declaring him venerable in 2004. A bishop was describing Brochero, and the Pope expressed with word
the exact feeling of Argentine priests and bishops for the holy parish priest.
Brochero was a priest who loved his people, who loved his parish, was dedicated to everyone and
to every single parishioner. It was this love for his people that gave him joy, strength and apostolic
creativity. A phrase and a gesture paint it all around. The phrase: Woe if the devil steals a soul from
me!11. The gesture: one time he was called to visit a sick person. On the way to the farm he found the
river dangerously in flood, as often happens to mountain rivers. Anyone else would have backtracked,
but the Cura Brochero sent the mule ahead of him and, hanging on to the mules tailand with that
phrase, he dived into the water and he crossed the river.
Brocheros inclination was precisely that of the Fathers heart: the inclination to go out to seek his
children. Among the people, the saying remains alive: Brochero went where they called him.
Since a boy. he was inclined to let himself be caught up and sustained (with the help of his mule)
by the Lord. As a priest, he recounted thus his priestly ordination: I was afraid. I am none other than a
poor sinner, full of limits and miseries. I asked myself: Will I be able to be faithful to my vocation? In
what fix am I placed?. But immediately a sensation of peace invaded my whole being. Because, if the
Lord had called me, He would be faithful and would sustain my faithfulness: besides, Jesus the Good
Shepherd, never denies his gifts to those who follow him and are another Jesus 12.
When he spoke to priests, Brochero showed himself particularly severe and demanding regarding the
manner of treating the people. He said to them: As many of your faithful are sinners, crude or
uncivilized, so much more must you treat them with gentleness and amiability in the confessional, from
the pulpit and also in family relationship. And if you find something particularly difficult to confront, tell
it to the curate, who knows well how you should confront it.13. And he brought up his mule as an
example: Dont give kicks (to people), but do like the mule that makes its way with the hip. Brochero
referred to the fact that, when a horse descends a mountain path and risks falling, it is put together with a
good mule with a good rider, who returns it on the path by force of a little push, bumping it with his hip 14.
In fact, he said, the priest who does not show much compassion for sinners is a half priest. These
blessed clothes that I am wearing are not what makes me a priest; if I dont carry love in my breast, I am
not even Christian15
The gaucho priest
For the people he was Seior Brochero and the Cura guacho. Seior for the respect that they brought
to him. Guacho for his gauchadas (good deeds). Those favors or special attentions that are gratuitously
done when you love another person, extend generosity beyond the just or necessary. Mamerto Menapace,
a Benedictine monk famous in Argentina, says that Brochero didnt perform miracles but rather
gauchadas. He was a guacho even in his language, which was that of the simple people.

11

Cfr J. C. MEREDEZ, El Cura Brochero. Un hombre de Dios para su pueblo, Conference held at Villa Santa Rosa, August 16, 2009: cfr
www.curabrochero.org/ar/documents/Un%20Hombre%20de%20Dio%20para%20su%20pueblo.doc

12

Cfr. www.recursoscatolicos.com.ar/Frases/curabrochero.htm

13

J. G. BROCHERO, Yo soy yo, cit., 32 s.

14

Cfr A. ROSSI, Conversin pastoral. Charla a los sacerdotes de Buenos Aires, Lujn, 2010.

15

Cfr POPE FRANCIS, Spiritual retreat on the occasion of the Jubilee of Priests. Third meditaion, June 2, 2016.

It is noted that his cause (for sainthood) was stopped for a long time for the issue of his so-called
swear words. Some maintain that they are not suitable for a priest, much less a saint. However, Fr.
Anzar tells that having been asked of various elderly, who had known him, if Seior Brochero said such
words or phrases, they said that Seior Brochero was very accurate in what he said, and they did not
think it was so. Rather, when there were children and Seior Brochero came, everyone took care to not
utter any word out of place, not even those customary16.
The fact is thought provoking that the simple people said that Brochero was very careful in what he
said, while the so-called well-educated people considered him coarse. When he was called to
formally defend himself, to an explicit question of his bishop, Brochero answered: On the fact that some
time they escape me [swear words], I wont say it was so, even if I myself do not remember it. But on the
fact that I use that word, I dont have awareness of it17
One time, Fr. Eugenio Ciprian, who accompanied him, to win over the mountain people and to put
himself at their level, used an expression a bit strong. Seior Brochero admonished him affectionately,
telling him to not express himself so, because such language did not suit him. And he added: For me
it is suitable, but not for you18.
These certainties of Brochero regarding his way of speaking reflect a direct intention that seeks the
salvation of the listener and chooses the language most suitable for him. This attitude, that one could
define as inculturation, was a grace for him that did not make him doubt his own language.
Little by little, in the conscience of the causes of saints was maturing the reality that the people of
God had intuited since the first moment, namely that Brocheros language was the language of love.
Time reveals that his words were neither coarse nor refined: they were words adapted to each person. As
he opened roads into the mountains by force of levelling the earth, so also he opened a road into the hearts
of the people with his words.
It is told that one time, in a course of the Exercises, Brochero listenedbecause he usually didnt
preach but he cooked and heard confessionsto the meditation given by a young Jesuit priest. The
preacher sought to rouse the hearts of the listeners saying phrases like this: Come close, my son, to that
cross, and contemplate how afflicted Jesus Christ is who suffers for your sins. When the padre ended,
Brochero approached him and whispered into his ear: Father, my peasants dont understand it. Look
what bewildered faces! Let me preach the second parte. The Jesuit was happy to agree. Brochero
began by saying: Son, look how beat up Jesus is: they have knocked out his teeth and lost a sea of blood.
See his wounded head and full of thorns, for you who steal the sheep of your neighbor. And for you who
he has split and wounded lips. See how they have pierced his feet with nails, you who lie and hate 19.
These strong words penetrated the hearts of the peasants, who immediately soften and begin to cry.
To make himself understood was Brocheros desire. He dreamed since from a young manliterally
dreamed, because, during his time at the university, he moved aside the partition and woke his room mate
Benjamin Aguirre to explain to him some passage of the Gospel, that he had meditated on during the
nighton the way of speaking of the Lord. He said: How wonderful it would be to hear the Sermon on
the Mount from the lips of our Lord, if we, after having received it second and third hand, are touched so
much by it and the apostles themselves went calmly to encounter death after having heard it, and they
could not have been more happy20. Brochero wanted to present that language of the Lord to the ears of
his people.
16

A. AZNAR, El Cura Brochero, cit., 155 s.

17

Ibid.

18

A. AZNAR, El Cura Brochero, cit., 155 s

19

G. VILLARREAL, Cura Brochero, un santo argentine, Buenos Aires, Secretaria de Culto, 2005, 78.

When he got off his mule, getting to some house, he announced saying: I am here to give you music.
And the sweetness and amiability of his heart, that sought to cheer up everyone, with a language full of
love, in which some strong phrases served to stir up his listeners and to immediately touch their heart was
music.
Brochero himself tells thus of his first apostolic experiences: The image with which I began to
talk about in the first missions was that of a black cow which all the listeners could see. I said that like
that cow had the sign and brand of the estate called Trinity, so also all Christians have the sign and brand
of God. However, God did not brand them on the leg, nor on the thigh, nor on the chest, but in the soul:
and God did not stamp them on the ear (cutting it), but marked them on the forehead, because Gods sign
was the holy cross, and his brand was the faith. And this was what he put in their soul 21. The people
understood him.
Brochero is the saint of the Spiritual Exercises. His life provokes a question, that not always finds an
explicit answer: how did he come up with the idea of giving the Spiritual Exercises to his people? We
pose the question, because we see the fact that so many people mobilized en masse to do the Exercises as
an undertaking.
The saint of the Exercises
But if we place ourselves in the last quarter of the 19 th century and at the beginning of the 20th
century, we can think that in that Argentine people the memory of another evangelizing saint, Blessed
Mara Antonia de la Paz, who 100 years earlier, between 1777 and 1779, had organized 14 courses of the
Exercises at Crdaba, was still alive22. And they were still feeling the consequences of the evangelization
that the Jesuits had been carrying on for two hundred years in these lands.
Brochero was always committed to the Spiritual Exercises, from the first course that he organized,
leading his people to Crdoba, up to the construction of the Casa di Exercises to managing to give them
in his own parish. The Exercises were a pastoral tool for him. Fr. Aznar, after Brocheros death, told that
Cura Brocheros pastoral style was characterized in a particular way by that Ignatian annotation that
says: The Creator and Lord himself communicates himself to the devoted soul embracing it, disposing it
in his love and praise for the way in which it will be better able to serve him in the future 23.
Brochero had decisively adopted the method of the Ignatian Exercises, because he saw that they
constituted a way and were suited to his people. It is no joke to affirm that to Brochero the
beatification is mad, as Pope Francis said, with the mule and all the rest 24, on the road. The Exercises,
in fact, have much of the step of the mule, more adapted to going up into the mountains. Once you have
experienced it, you do not want to go up by another means. The mule is preferred to other more rapid
means, that, however, at some point make you fall. With the Meditation on the Two Standards of the
Spiritual Exercises, Brochero could show his people and make them compare the goods of Jesus Christ,

20

Summarium super vita et virtutibus, Carlos Oracio Rodriquez, 20.

21

J. G. BROCHERO, Yo soy yo, cit., 16.

22

Cfr. D. FARES, Mara Antonia de Paz Y Figueroa. A blessed Jesuit, in Civ. Catt. 2016 III 301-312.

23

J. C. MEREDIZ, El Padre Brochero es fervor, cit., 11.

24

POPE FRANCIS, Letter to the President of the Argentine Episcopal Conference, cit.

high Captain, a bit far away, as to come from there, but sure, and those of Lucifer, goods present, but
wretched and fleeting25.
The holy intercessor and father of the homeland
In a letter sent to the Jesuit, Fr. Fernando Boasso, which served as the prologue to his little book on
Brochero, Pope Francis said to him: This celebration will be, without doubt, a grace for the priests and
for all of Gods faithful people that sojourn in Argentina, so as for all the Church universal. As I said
some years ago to the priests in the encounter in the Casa di Esercizi at Villa Brochero itself, our Cura is
an example of the missionary disciple, who invites us to evangelize our faithful people as he did,
walking, walking, walking26
The evangelizer saints arriving in Argentina lag behind with respect to the train that Brochero dreamed.
The fact is that they evangelize on foot, like Mara Antonia de la Paz Y Figueroa, the blessed Jesuit, or
on the back of a mule, like Brochero. They take time to reach the altars (to reach sainthood), even though
they are already in the hearts of the people, like Blessed Ceferino Namuncur 27. However, what they
lacked in miracles was compensated by their being evangelizers and witnesses of the faith and of Gods
mercy, like in the case of Blessed Artemide Zatti28.
St Jos Gabriel del Rosario Brochero is one of those living stonesa stone that walks, like the rock that
accompanied the people of God in the desert (1 Cor 10:4)on which the Church is built. In this
particular historic moment of the life of the Argentine nation we hope that the canonization of this
authentic father of the homeland, St Jos Gabriel Brochero, first Argentine saint, is a cause of joy and
pushes all the Argentines to work together for peace and justice.
They can count, to this end, on a great intercessor, who already during his life said: God gives
me the occupation of seeking my ultimate end, and of praying for those of the past, the present and for
those who will come, up to the end of the world29.

25

CEA, cap. 1, Pltica da las Dos Banderas.

26

POPE FRANCIS, Note to Fr. Fernanco Poasso S.J., May 25, 2013, in F. BOASSO, Vida del Beato Jos Gabriel del Rosario Brochero, Buenos
Aires, Bonum, 2014. Fr. Boasso foresaw that Brochero would have been declared father of the Argentine homeland, like St Alberto Hurtado in
Chile.

27

Blessed Ceferino Namuncur (1886-1905), died in Rome in the Hospital of the Brothers of St John of God (Fatebenefratelli), was beatified
by Pope Benedict XVI in 2007.

28

Blessed Artemide Zatti, an Italian-Argentine religious (1880-1951), Salesian nurse (he nursed Ceferino in 1902), was called the relative of
the poor, and was noted for his joyousness and for the care that he took of the sick.

29

CEA, Letter n. 467.