On August 25, the Postulator General of the Congregation, Andrzej Lukawski sscc, visited Cardinal Dom Orani Tempesta, O. Cist., Archbishop of Rio de Janeiro. Also present was João Lucas Barbosa Alves sscc.
The purpose of the visit was to discuss the possibility of opening the cause for canonization of Fr. Máximo Sada Rodeles sscc. The conversation was positive and Monsignor Orani confirmed that the Archdiocese of Rio de Janeiro supports the opening of the cause.
Biography of Father Máximo Sada sscc.
Máximo Sada Rodeles sscc was born in Olite (Navarra), Spain, on September 3, 1919. He was baptized and given the name Miguel. He entered the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts at a very young age and began his novitiate in the middle of the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939).
He professed his religious vows in El Escorial on October 12, 1940. He studied philosophy and theology in Miranda de Ebro, Burgos and was ordained a priest in 1946. In 1947, he was sent as a missionary to Brazil.
His first assignment as an assistant priest to the parish of Nossa Senhora do Desterro, in Campo Grande, Rio de Janeiro, RJ. In 1954 he was appointed superior and pastor of the parish of the Sacred Hearts in Tijuca. In 1960 he returned to Campo Grande as parish priest. In the following years he worked in various missions of the Congregation: the Seminary of St. José dos Pinhais and Hugo Lange Church in Curitiba, Paraná. From there he moved to the parish of Santa Margarita Maria, in Vila Mariana, in the capital city of São Paulo.
In the late 1980s, he returned to the parish of Nossa Senhora do Desterro, in Rio, where he exercised his missionary gifts until he was murdered during a robbery.
The day after his killing, the funeral mass and the transfer of the coffin in a fire truck turned into an emotional demonstration of thousands of faithful and friends. The mass was presided over by Cardinal Dom Eugênio Sales, Archbishop of Rio de Janeiro, and concelebrated by a large number of priests from the Congregation and the archdiocese. Both in Campo Grande and in Tijuca, among his brothers and sisters of the Sacred Hearts, the witness of Father Maximo continues to live on. He will always be remembered for his generous death, his kindness, zeal and apostolic dedication.
08/27/2023