News on Venerable Faustino Pérez-Manglano
March 2026
On March 25, the documentary A Saint Among Us, about the life of Faustino, will premiere at Colegio Nuestra Señora del Pilar in Valencia. The documentary was produced by the audiovisual company Ongaku S.L. The project reviews Faustino’s life through the testimonies of those who knew him personally (family members, friends, schoolmates) and of those for whom his example of life and holiness has become a spiritual reference in various countries around the world. The date chosen for the premiere is linked to three reasons for celebration: the Solemnity of the Annunciation, and therefore the Patronal Feast of the Marianist Family, as well as the centenary of the birth of Fr. José María Salaverri, SM.
September 2025
Perhaps God Will Speak to Me, the biography of Faustino written by José María Salaverri, SM, now has a Ukrainian translation, thanks to the work of two Marianists who lived for some years in Warsaw, the capital of Poland: Emilio Cárdenas and José Ignacio Iglesia. During a meeting of the Marian Congregations in Lviv, Ukraine, a Pauline priest told them of his interest in publishing, through the well-known publishing house of his congregation, a book for Ukrainian youth, since at that time there were very few Catholic books in that language and practically none aimed at young people. The Marianists spoke to him about the book on Faustino, Perhaps God Will Speak to Me, and thus the Ukrainian translation came about. Later, at a diocesan meeting of Ukrainian youth, both Marianist religious presented Faustino to them and gave them copies of the translated version in their own language.
January 2024
This Faustino website marks 25 years since its original publication in January 1999. It was redesigned and expanded in 2003, changing to its current web address. Since then, it has continued to be updated up to the present day.
September 2023
A new “Faustino Commission” has been formed under the leadership of the Marianist priest Rafael Eguíluz. The main goal of this commission is to promote greater knowledge of Faustino’s life and witness.
February 2018
On the 1st, Fr. José María Salaverri died. He was the promoter of the beatification cause of Faustino Pérez-Manglano, former Superior General of the Society of Mary, former headmaster of Colegio del Pilar in Valencia, and Faustino’s Spiritual Director. May he rest in peace.
January-December 2017
The bicentenary of the foundation of the Marianist Congregation is celebrated. Faustino Pérez-Manglano, William Joseph Chaminade, and Adèle de Trenquelléon are three of the central figures of this celebration.
December 2016
The third edition of the booklet The Rosary with Faustino has been published.
March 2016
The 70th anniversary of Faustino’s birth, which took place in 1946, was celebrated.
March 2013
On the 3rd, the Marianists celebrated the 50th anniversary of Faustino’s death (1963) at Colegio Nuestra Señora del Pilar in Valencia.
October 2012
Fr. José María Salaverri wrote a new book about Faustino. It is called Venerable Faustino and has the subtitle He Was All Smiles. This new biography of Faustino appeared in view of the approaching 50th anniversary of his death.
August 2012
Two new editions of Faustino’s biography Perhaps God Will Speak to Me have appeared. In Seoul, South Korea, the first Korean edition was published, prepared by Vianney Ahn, SM. In Turin, Italy, the fourth Italian edition, updated and published by the Salesian publisher Elledici, includes a new and excellent foreword by Cardinal Amato, prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints. In it he describes Faustino as “a most pure diamond of holiness,” analyzes his spiritual growth, and concludes by saying: “Let ourselves be guided by these little ones, who are also masters in the science of love, the science of the saints, and let us rekindle in all of us the passion for our own holiness.”
There are biographies of Faustino in twelve languages. Perhaps God Will Speak to Me exists in Spanish, French, Italian, English, Hungarian, Polish, Portuguese, and Korean. Four other shorter biographies by various authors exist in Papiamento, Rwandan, Swedish, and Albanian.
January 14, 2011
Pope Benedict XVI recognized the “heroic virtues” of Faustino Pérez-Manglano on January 14, 2011, and thus he became Venerable.
October 2010
On October 7, 2010, the book Diaries and Other Writings was presented by its author, Enrique Pérez, together with Fr. José María Salaverri, Faustino’s spiritual director and biographer. The event took place at 8:00 p.m. in the assembly hall of Colegio del Pilar in Valencia. In addition, a 20-minute video from the television program Encuentros on Popular TV was shown, featuring interviews with Fr. José María Salaverri and Eugenia Pérez-Manglano, Faustino’s sister.
June 20, 2010
Faustino’s autograph writings are published for the first time in a book with a foreword by Archbishop Carlos Osoro.
The autograph writings from the diary of the young Valencian Faustino Pérez-Manglano (1946-1963), whose beatification cause was underway at the time, were published in a book with a foreword by the Archbishop of Valencia, Carlos Osoro.
The work, published by PPC, presents for the first time Faustino’s writings dated between September 14, 1960, and February 11, 1963, one month before his death at the age of sixteen because of Hodgkin’s disease.
The young Valencian wrote his diary in seven notebooks and on a number of loose sheets, using “simple language, very correct spelling, and great detail in his notes,” according to the introduction written by the religious Enrique Torres Rojas, who edited and compiled the young man’s writings.
In his writings, Faustino Pérez-Manglano includes a “description of daily life, his daily religious practices, the medical treatments he received, books he read, films, television programs, and even the football scores of the matches he followed.” Likewise, in his notes he “moves from the chronicle of the day to direct or indirect invocation of Christ or the Virgin Mary,” he added.
Throughout its pages, Faustino “shows his moments of pain and joy, shared with his family: he prays the Rosary every day, attends French and judo classes, and interweaves his feelings of religious vocation with deeper reflections.”
February 15, 2010
The Holy See’s congress of theologians approves Faustino’s “heroic virtues.”
The Holy See’s congress of theologians approved the “heroic virtues” lived by the young Valencian Faustino Pérez-Manglano (1946-1963), marking an “important advance” in his canonization process, according to sources from the Archdiocese’s Office for the Causes of Saints.
After the favorable judgment of the theologians, the cause, opened in Rome in 1991, was passed on to the congress of cardinals and bishops of the Vatican, “which, if it ratifies the decision, would make it possible for Pope Benedict XVI to sign the decree of heroic virtues, whereby Faustino would be declared Venerable.”
From that moment, the canonization process of Faustino Pérez-Manglano would continue with the aim of “proving a miracle attributed to his intercession so that he might be raised to the altars as Blessed,” they added. In that case, Pérez-Manglano “would become the youngest Blessed in the history of the Church in Valencia.”
The approval of the virtues by the commission of theologians represented a “very important step in the canonization process of this Servant of God,” whose cause in the diocesan phase in Valencia began in 1986 and concluded in 1991.
November 19, 2008
The Cardinal Archbishop of Valencia, Agustín García-Gasco, received on Tuesday the Marianist provincial, Fr. Ramón Iceta, who informed the cardinal of the congregation’s proposal to present, during World Youth Day Madrid 2011, the testimony of the Valencian Faustino Pérez-Manglano, then in the process of beatification, “as a model of a young Christian and an example of holiness,” according to archdiocesan sources.
Fr. Ramón Iceta expressed to the cardinal the “desire of the congregation to propose this initiative to the preparatory commission of the upcoming Youth Day, called by Pope Benedict XVI, in which exemplary lives of young Christians are presented for reflection.”
At that time, the Holy See was instructing the beatification cause of Pérez-Manglano, who, “if the cause reached completion, would become the youngest Blessed of the Church in Valencia,” according to the Marianist priest José María Salaverri, who was also present at the audience with the cardinal.
The young Valencian, who died in 1963 at the age of sixteen, was born on August 4, 1946, in Valencia and entered Colegio Nuestra Señora del Pilar in 1952. In 1961 Hodgkin’s disease undermined his health, but “he accepted his death naturally after giving exceptional witness throughout his life and until the final moment,” Salaverri said.
Since the beginning of his beatification cause, “more than 400 testimonies regarding Faustino’s intercession have reached us. Among them is that of five castaways who recount how their boat sank off the coast of Calvià, Mallorca, in August 1994 and, after entrusting themselves to Faustino at night in the middle of the storm, were found and rescued safe and sound. There is also the story of an American woman who was depressed and suicidal and who, after reading one of Faustino’s books, recovered from her depression and changed her life, as she herself says.”
Moreover, in the Mexican city of Querétaro, numerous youth groups created the so-called “Faustino Movement” for teenagers, in memory of the young Valencian. Young people entering the movement receive an illustrated album, and they also publish a regular bulletin about their activities.
Faustino’s biography, which has been published in numerous languages, “has helped many priestly and religious vocations, as he promised on the last day before his death, and encourages young people to take him as an example of Christian life,” Fr. José María Salaverri said.
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