DIEGO GIUSEPPE da CADICE, Blessed. — Capuchin preacher and writer of the Andalusian province, born in Cadiz on 30 March 1743, entered the novitiate on 31 March 1758, died at Ronda (Malaga) on 24 March 1801.
He was called the apostle of Spain, which he traversed preaching, to the stirred admiration of both the great and the common people. He was appointed consultor and theologian among the teaching faculty, honorary canon of many cathedral chapters, doctor honoris causa and member of various universities and cultural institutes. For religious and national independence he championed the crusade against the French revolutionaries (1793–95); widely circulated and issued in several editions was his pamphlet El soldado católico en guerra de religión (Ecija 1794). His sermons and discourses, collected in Colección de las obras del r. p. Fr. Diego Josef de Cádiz (5 vols., Madrid 1796–99), were also spread through numerous separate editions. A precious document of spirituality is the Cartas de conciencia that the Blessed Diego J. de Cádiz addressed to his spiritual director (Seville 1904). He particularly promoted devotion to the Most Holy Trinity and to the privileges of Mary. He was beatified in 1894 by Leo XIII. Feast day: 26 March.