Poveda, Pedro

POVEDA, PEDRO. - Spanish priest, founder of the Teresian Institution, b. December 3, 1874 at Linares (Jaén), murdered, out of hatred for the faith, in Madrid on 28 July 1936.

Ordained a priest (1897), he was a professor and spiritual director in the seminary, combining these occupations with the apostolate among the poor populations of the same city. Canon of Covadonga in 1906 and of Jaén in 1913, penitentiary in 1921 of the Royal Chapel of Madrid, he devoted himself entirely to the Work he had founded. His concerns had been, already from the first years of his priesthood, of a pedagogical nature. For this reason he had obtained the teacher's diploma and had founded two schools in Guadix. He was among the first to see the dangers that the progressive laicization of teaching presented for young women, and he wished to create within the Teresian Institution a group of elements well prepared intellectually and with a solid religious formation that could remedy the harm caused by the secular school. At his death, the Institution had already spread throughout Spain, in America and in Rome. His influence has been such that he is considered as one of the foremost among modern pedagogues. His thought has been transmitted by various publications: El provecho del alma (1909), issued in various editions (Italian version Il progresso spirituale dell'anima, Milan 1940); La voz del amado; Visita a la Santina; Plan de vida; Para los niños; Ensayo de proyectos pedagógicos para la fundación de una institución católica de enseñanza; Consejos a los profesoras de las primeras Academias Teresianas; Jesus Maestro; Meditaciones y Consideraciones para las Teresianas, all works notable for the soundness of their doctrine, the density of their ideas, the conciseness and clarity of their form. His process of beatification has been begun.

Anna Maria Lopez