STEFANO (MERCUELLO-ZABALZA) da ADOAIN. - Born at Adoain (Navarra) on 11 Oct. 1808; died at Sanlucar de Barrameda on 7 Oct. 1880.
Having entered the Capuchins at Cintruénigo on 28 Nov. 1828 and been ordained priest on 22 Dec. 1832, he was sent as a missionary to Venezuela in 1842; in 1853 he went to Cuba; in 1856 to Guatemala; in 1872 to the United States; and in 1874 he returned to Spain.
In the course of his missionary activity he organized numerous Christian communities, civilized a very large number of savages, and established religious associations in more than 200 parishes. In Central America he pacified insurrections and revolutions. He repeatedly assisted victims of the plague. He founded various convents and houses of spiritual exercises, and did so amid persecutions, trials, imprisonments, exiles, and grave illnesses, displaying prodigious constancy. Having returned to Spain in 1874, he travelled throughout Andalusia and Navarra, everywhere reviving Christian life, persuading even more by his conduct than by his powerful voice. He laboured for the Capuchin restoration in Spain, as provincial commissary of Andalusia and vice commissary general of the Capuchins in Spain, and prepared the reunion of the Spanish Capuchins with the rest of the Order.
The cause of beatification was introduced on 27 March 1936.