He was born Salvador Pladevall i Bien some time during December 1520 in the hospital of Santa Coloma de Farners, located in the Catalan Province of Girona, where his parents worked as servants.

He first entered the famed Benedictine Abbey of Santa Maria de Montserrat, near Barcelona, to explore monastic life.

Apparently not feeling drawn there, and desiring a more humble way of life, he entered the novitiate of the Observant branch of the Order of Friars Minor in Barcelona as a lay brother on 3 May 1541.

[3] As a result, Salvador's superiors developed a suspicion of him which was to shadow him for the rest of his life, and they began moving him to different friaries: first Bellpuig, then Lleida, followed by the remote village of Horta de Sant Joan, the town with which he is most identified, residing there 1547–1559 in the Friary of Our Lady of the Angels.

[1] In 1565 Salvador was assigned to the Friary of St. Mary of Jesus in Cagliari, on the island of Sardinia, then under the rule of Spain, where he continued to serve as the cook for the community.