Saint Ezekiel Moreno: Pastor, missionary, and witness of the Gospel.
Do you dare to delve into the story of a restless heart, which turned every doubt and every twist in the road into an adventure towards Truth?
A life of mission, faith, and service
Saint Ezekiel Moreno is one of the most significant figures in the recent history of the Order of Augustinian Recollects. His life was a faithful and constant response to God’s call, lived through mission, pastoral dedication, and a deep communion with the Church.
Without seeking protagonism or recognition, Saint Ezekiel was able to assume demanding responsibilities and complex contexts with a solid faith, a clear awareness of his mission, and a concrete charity towards the poorest and sickest. His life itinerary reflects a holiness rooted in ordinary life, sustained by prayer and expressed in service.
San Ezequiel Moreno
Early vocation and simple roots
Saint Ezekiel Moreno was born in 1848 in Alfaro (La Rioja, Spain), into a simple and deeply believing family. From a very young age, he showed a clear inclination towards religious life, which found its definitive channel in the Order of Augustinian Recollects, which he joined as a teenager.
Ordained a priest in the Philippines in 1871, he began his missionary life there in demanding contexts, marked by geographical dispersion, poverty, and precarious means. Those years shaped his pastoral identity: a close, constant priest, deeply dedicated to catechesis, to the accompaniment of the faithful, and to the care of the sick.
After his return to Spain, he was assigned to the formation of new religious in Monteagudo. Shortly after, he responded to a new missionary call that would definitively mark his life: the restoration of the Augustinian-Recollect presence in Colombia. There he played a decisive role in the reorganization of the Order and in the revitalization of the missions, especially in Casanare, the country’s first apostolic vicariate.
Appointed bishop of Pasto in 1896, he exercised his episcopal ministry with a deep sense of pastoral responsibility, fidelity to the magisterium of the Church, and closeness to his people. His clear word, his tireless dedication, and his austere life made him a respected and listened-to pastor, inside and outside his diocese. His entire career reflects a life guided by a constant conviction: to serve God and the Church wherever it was most necessary, with simplicity, inner firmness, and total availability.
Receive the novena of Saint Ezekiel Moreno
Saint Ezekiel continues to accompany today those who seek comfort, strength, and hope. We invite you to receive the novena of Saint Ezekiel Moreno free of charge by email, a simple prayer proposal to entrust your own intentions to God and learn to trust as he trusted.
San Ezequiel Moreno
His life as an Augustinian Recollect friar
Before being a bishop, Saint Ezekiel was, first and foremost, an Augustinian Recollect friar. He deeply loved religious life, community, prayer, and the traditions of the Order. He lived the vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience radically, convinced that without love for God there is no authentic apostolate.
As a friar, he was a man of intense prayer, faithful to the Divine Office and the Eucharist, with a special devotion to the Sacred Heart and the Virgin. He knew how to unite contemplation and action, inner life and pastoral commitment. From this Augustinian root sprang his missionary strength and his ability to accompany, form, and sustain others.
His example reminds us that the true Christian hero does not act alone, but rooted in God and in the community.
Saint Ezekiel Moreno Prayer Center
The Augustinian Recollects, as custodians of the spiritual legacy of Saint Ezekiel Moreno, want to keep alive his sensitivity towards those who suffer, especially cancer patients. The Saint Ezekiel Moreno Prayer Center is a space of intercession and hope. By sending your prayer intention through the form, it will be entrusted directly to one of the monasteries of Augustinian Recollect Nuns, where the nuns will pray specifically for your request. We pray especially for those who are going through illness, for their families, and for those who accompany them, following the compassionate heart of Saint Ezekiel.
San Ezequiel Moreno
Illness, dedication, and death
Saint Ezekiel was not a martyr in the strict sense, but his life and death had the weight of an authentic martyrdom. When the disease appeared, a painful and devastating cancer, he did not abandon his mission or his trust in God.
He accepted suffering with serenity, without complaint, offering each pain as a last silent preaching. His illness was his last mission, to teach to believe when nothing more can be done than to love and trust.
He died on August 19, 1906, in the convent of Monteagudo, pronouncing with his whole life a last “yes” to God.
And so, restless, he continued his spiritual journey, trying everything: philosophies, schools, doctrines. He lived almost a decade within Manichaeism, convinced that he had found a total explanation of reality. But the promised brilliance faded when he met Faustus, his intellectual leader, and discovered that behind it there was more emptiness than light.
Disillusioned, he bordered on skepticism. Like an authentic adventurer of the spirit, he jumped from one current to another, studying astrology, rhetoric, mysticism, and every book that crossed his path. He was a tireless seeker.
Pray the novena with Saint Ezekiel
on Hallow
You can also pray the novena of Saint Ezekiel Moreno through the Hallow application, joining thousands of people who find in prayer a path of comfort and strength.
The living legacy of Saint Ezekiel
The body of Saint Ezekiel Moreno rests in Monteagudo (Navarra), a place deeply united to his history. Monteagudo is not only the place where his remains rest, but an authentic center of spirituality, a living memory of his dedication and his passion for the Kingdom.
Each year, hundreds of faithful pilgrims come to this place to pray, give thanks, and renew their faith. There, Saint Ezekiel continues to speak with his life: inviting us not to settle down, to look at the world with the eyes of Christ, and to live a courageous, incarnate, and missionary faith.
His legacy remains alive in the Order, in the Church, and in all those who discover in him a hero of the Gospel for our time.
