PEDRO de SAN JOSÉ de BÉTHENCOURT, Venerable. — Franciscan tertiary, founder of the Bethlehemites suppressed by the Cortes in 1820, born at Vilafior (Tenerife, Canary Islands) on 21 March 1626, died at Guatemala on 25 April 1667. Of the lineage of Jean de Béthencourt, the famous French conqueror, he worked as a shepherd until the age of twenty-four; after going to the New World, he devoted himself to charity and the education of children, founding a grand hospital-school complex which he called Bethlehem, the cradle of the Order. Austere yet simple and cheerful, he was rich in charisms. Clement XIV declared his heroic virtues in 1771.
BIBL.: [Giuseppe della Madre di Dio], Storia della vita, virtù, doni e grazie del venerabile servo di Dio p. fr. Pietro di S. Giuseppè B., Roma 1739 (based on the processes). Mario Colpo