Today, August 19, is the memorial of Saint Ezequiel Moreno.
Patron saint of cancer patients.
Ezequiel was a Spanish Augustinian Recollect who was assigned as a missionary to the Philippines. He was born in 1848 in La Rioja, Spain.
His first mission was in Calapan, Oriental Mindoro. He was later transferred to Las Piñas. This assignment began from his Monteagudo monastery in Navarra, Spain. He sailed to Jaro, Iloilo where he got his minor orders.
After Jaro, he left again for Manila to get his sacerdotal orders from Gregorio Martinez, Manila’s Archbishop at the time. From his ordination, Ezequiel went to his mission in Calapan, Oriental Mindoro. He later became proficient in speaking Tagalog.
He was also sent to Palawan: as military chaplain in what is now the Iwahig Prison and Penal Farm; as one of the founders of Aborlan town and Barangan Inagawan. He had to flee the area because he caught malaria.
In 1876, he was moved to Las Piñas where people looked up to him– so much so that they opposed his eventual transfer to Santo Tomas, Batangas. The opposition was unsuccessful and he was quickly loved by the people of Santo Tomas.
When he was recalled to Manila because he was appointed General Preacher of the Recollects, the people of Santo Tomas tried to suspend the order, as they were not willing to let go of living saint as Fr. Ezequiel.
He became parish priest of Santa Cruz Church in Manila in 1881, and lived in Imus and Bacoor, Cavite in an official capacity.
In 1888, he sailed to Colombia to head the mission there. Ezequiel became a bishop there in 1893.
He died of cancer of the palate in 1906 in Navarra, Spain. He was 58.
He was beatified in 1975 by Pope St. Paul VI. He was canonized in 1992 by Pope St. John Paul II.