ACI Prensa Staff, Nov 14, 2023 / 07:00 am
Nov. 14 is World Diabetes Day, a day that many in the worldwide medical community focus on a disease that causes about 4 million deaths a year, according to the World Health Organization. The Catholic Church considers St. Rafael Arnáiz Baron to be the patron saint of those suffering from diabetes.
Considered one of the great mystics of the 20th century, Arnáiz could not fulfill his desire to become a Trappist monk because of his diabetes, so he was only allowed to be an oblate.
Born in Burgos in 1911, he was educated in schools of the Society of Jesus in his city of origin and in Oviedo, where his family later moved for work reasons.
As a child, he suffered from various illnesses. At the age of 10, after recovering from pleurisy, his father took him to Zaragoza to offer him to the Virgin of Pilar in gratitude for his cure.