MADRID, Spain.- On February 2, 1912, José López Piteira was born in Camagüey, who would become the first Cuban blessed. He was the fifth son of Don Emilio López Vilelo and Doña Lucinda Piteira Romero, Spanish emigrants living in Cuba.
When the boy was four years old, his family decided to return to Spain, specifically to the city of Orense, in Galicia. There he became an Augustinian friar and studied philosophy and theology.
In 1934 he made his solemn profession and was ordained a deacon in 1935. The following year, after the coup d’état that triggered the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939), the communists unleashed a strong persecution of the religious in Spain.
José López Piteira lived in the Monastery of San Lorenzo de El Escorial together with a large community of Augustinians. In the midst of the repression, José López Piteira and a hundred Augustinians were taken from the monastery and taken to give a statement. They all confessed to being Augustinian religious and for this they were taken to prison.
After being imprisoned, the family of José López Piteira made representations to Cuban consular officials to try to obtain his release, since he was a Cuban citizen. According to the magazine Cuban word, “When they told him that he could assert the circumstance of having been born in Cuba to obtain freedom, he replied: ‘All of you who have been my educators and teachers and my superiors are here, what am I going to do in the city? I prefer to follow everyone’s luck, and let it be what God wants’”.
The young man remained in prison for four months. After this time he was tried and sentenced to death, for the mere fact of being religious. On November 30, 1936, he was shot along with 50 other monks, at the age of 23.
Fray José López Piteira was beatified on October 28, 2007 along with 497 martyrs.
