[1] Ordained on 17 April 1897 at the age of twenty-three, he taught at the seminary, continued his studies, and received his licentiate in theology in Seville in 1900.

[2] He collected funds for the project, travelling through the province and to Madrid where he had good friends, and organized the St. Vincent de Paul Conferences.

He returned to teaching at the seminary at Jaen, served as spiritual director of Los Operarios Catechetical Centre, and taught religion at the Teachers Training School.

A few days before his death he wrote, "Now more than ever we must study the lives of the first Christians so as to learn from them how to behave in times of persecution.

See how they obeyed the Church, how they confessed Christ, how they prepared for martyrdom, how they prayed for their persecutors and forgave them...."[2] At dawn on 28 July 1936 a group of paramilitaries came to search his house.

He was beatified by Pope John Paul II at St. Peter's Basilica on 10 October 1993, together with Victoria Diez, a member of the Teresian Association.

Its aim is to invite men and women to work for a social and human transformation, in accordance with Gospel values, from the platform of their own professions, especially those related to the fields of education and culture.

In 1924, Pope Pius XI approved the Teresian Association as a "pious union of the faithful", and it later spread to Chile and Italy.

On 10 July 1990, Pope John Paul II approved that it reverts to its original identity as being an Association of the Faithful.

Its objective is the human promotion of individuals and the transformation of unjust structures by means of an education and culture imparted from a Christian perspective.