Peru is known worldwide as a land of holy men and women, although some, such as Bishop Emilio Lissón, are little known. From Peru are St. Martin de Porres, St. Rose of Lima, St. Toribio de Mogrovejo, St. John Macias, St. Francis Solano, Blessed Anne of the Angels… and so many other silent followers of Jesus Christ among whom we should highlight so many anonymous missionaries who transmitted the faith by word and testimony of their lives in the most remote places of Peru.
1. Family, childhood, adolescence and youth
Emilio Lissón was born on May 24, 1873 to a Christian family in Arequipa (Peru) and was baptized two days after his birth in the parish of El Sagrario in Arequipa. He was given the names Juan Francisco Emilio Trinidad in order to respect family traditions and devotions. They called him Emilio. He received his formation in the faith not only from his mother, but also from his maternal grandmother. From the time that he was a child he learned to make the sign of the Cross, to pray the Our Father, the Hail Mary and was instructed in the Catecismo explicado de la Doctrina cristiana [Catechism of Christian Doctrine] by Father José García Mazo, a book preserved in the library of the house, and much used.
His father died prematurely and his mother was left to guide and protect Emilio’s childhood.
In September 1884, at the age of twelve, after finishing five years of elementary school and entering adolescence, his mother took him to St. Vincent de Paul Seminary School of the Congregation of the Mission of Arequipa.
In that school he was welcomed by Father Hippolyte Duhamel, who as director of the school, had introduced new teaching methods that allowed the students to develop their intellectual abilities and strengthen their vocational interest, assimilating at the same time the unalterable evangelical and moral principles of Christianity.
During the eight years -1884 to 1892- that he attended the “Saint Vincent de Paul” school, Fr. Hipólito Duhamel, who, as later recalled by Víctor Andrés Belaunde, future President of the UN, in 1948, had a notable influence on the integral formation of that generation to which belonged, along with Emilio Lissón, Belaúnde himself, his brother Rafael, Juan Gualberto Guevara -who was the first Peruvian to receive the cardinal’s dignity- and other honest and upright men, educated to serve, who began to act in the political, cultural and religious life of the country, since the first years of the twentieth century.
According to Belaunde, Father Duhamel knew how to inspire in that generation the culture of Christian humanism, the love of the countryside and history, the respect for the past and the Latin culture and the fondness for the literatures of Spain and France. At the same time, he taught to establish clear boundaries, to seek solutions in faith, order and reason, to denounce anomalies and injustices, to seek the common good.
2. Priestly and missionary vocation
It was the last decade of the 19th century when Emilio Lissón finished his schooling and had to choose between preparing himself for civilian life in the country, pursuing studies in the humanities or embarking on a career in science and technology. He was endowed with the necessary intelligence to take any of these paths.
But he felt strongly that his destiny was in the bosom of the Church. Having passed his philosophy studies, he requested and obtained admission to the Major Seminary of Arequipa, “San Jeronimo,” which was run by the Congregation of the Mission. He was already well advanced in his theological studies when he applied for admission to the Congregation. Under the supervision of the priests of the Congregation of the Mission, he left Arequipa, embarked in Mollendo for Lima and from Callao, in 1892, he left for Marseilles and Paris, the city of light which at the end of the 19th century was the most important European and world cultural center and, at the same time, the capital of frivolity and entertainment, of the belle-époque, of the Lumière brothers with their moving images, of Tolouse Lautrec and Ofenbach.
These were also the times of positivism and idealism, the times in which modernist thought was maturing, with its contradictions; the period of the development of socialism and of the conflict between workers and entrepreneurs; the period of the strengthening of the bourgeoisie.
3. His formation in Paris
On May 18, 1892, Emilio Lisson began his internal seminary (novitiate) in the Congregation of the Mission in Paris. He was twenty years old and could show an exceptional curriculum studiorum. Two years later, after having shown signs of discipline and adhesion to the spirit and charism of the Congregation of the Mission, which is the same spirit and charism of its founder, St. Vincent de Paul, he took his vows and continued his studies in Theology, Sacred Scripture and Natural Sciences. French had become his second language; he studied English and Italian as well as Latin and Greek. In all subjects he passed his exams with distinction.
Considering that he was fit to receive orders, he received first of all the minor orders, then subdiaconate and diaconate. Finally, on June 8, 1895, he was ordained a priest at the Mother House of the Congregation of the Mission in Paris.
A special dispensation was necessary for his ordination because he was not of canonical age to receive the priesthood. A rescript from Rome authorized his priestly consecration.
4. Return to Peru
Father Emilio Lissón returned to Peru immediately after his ordination. He probably disembarked in the port of Mollendo and then continued on to Arequipa, where Father Duhamel assigned him to the direction of the Minor Seminary of the diocese and the Apostolic College of the Congregation of the Mission.
At the same time that he was teaching in the above mentioned seminaries, he enrolled in the University of St. Augustine to take courses in Geology and Natural Sciences and to complete his humanistic formation; he also took several courses in Jurisprudence. He worked hard, studied and taught, paying attention to instilling ethical principles and awakening love for the poor. Faith, hope and charity were for Father Emilio a guide and a motive of life, of a life conducted with humility.
Around 1902 he was entrusted with the direction of the Minor Seminary of Arequipa, at the same time he was teaching theology and law at the Major Seminary.
5. Rector of the Seminary College of Trujillo
In 1907, upon the death of the Rector of the Seminary College “San Carlos y San Marcelo” of Trujillo, Father Teofilo Gaujon, his superiors appointed him as rector of the seminary and , at the same time, he serves as spiritual director of the students.
At that time the Trujillo seminary also received students who did not aspire to the priesthood, but who had to complete their formation in order to pursue university studies. Among Father Emilio’s students was an adolescent who would remember his lessons in his maturity. That student was called Víctor Raúl Haya de la Torre, the political leader who knew how to express his social ideas, create a political party and exercise a remarkable influence in Peruvian history.
6. A hiatus
It is necessary to explain the relations between the Catholic Church and the State in Peru until July 19, 1980, when a Concordat was signed in Lima, which put an end to the Patronage granted in 1875.
When José de San Martín issued in Huaura a provisory statute for the country that was being emancipated, it was established that the Head of State assumed the protectorate of the Church in Peru, which meant that, by virtue of a unilateral declaration, the King of Spain ceased his functions as Protector of the Church, which had been granted to him by Julius II, on July 28, 1508 with the Bula Universalis Ecclesiae regimini.
From 1821 onwards, this de facto protectorate was exercised, with different forms, by all the Presidents of Peru. The Peruvian government considered that the exercise of the protectorate was an attribute of sovereignty, forgetting that in order to exercise it a pontifical concession was indispensable. The subject was extensively discussed with the Secretariat of State by the first diplomatic representatives of Peru to the Holy See, Canon Bartolomé Herrera and Luis Mesones.
Peru intended to sign a concordat in which the Holy See would recognize the exercise of the Patronage to the President of the Republic. On the Pontifical side it was argued -rightly so- that the Patronage was a concession of the Supreme Pontiff.
Pius IX put an end to the dilemma, which intensified Peruvian diplomacy. On March 5, 1875, with the Bull Preclara Inter Beneficia he granted – granted not recognized – to the President of Peru and his successors pro tempore, the benefit, in the territory of the Republic, of the right of Patronage, which the Catholic Monarchs of Spain had by grace of the Apostolic See, before Peru was detached from their domination.
From then until 1980, the Presidents of Peru exercised de jure and by grace of the Holy Apostolic See the Patronage of the Church of Peru, and, consequently, enjoyed the right to present to the Apostolic See, on the occasion of the vacancy of the Archbishop’s Chair or of the Episcopal Chairs, Ecclesiastics worthy and apt… to occupy the vacant sees.
7. Appointed Bishop of Chachapoyas
In exercise of that right, in 1909, the President of Peru, Augusto B. Leguía, presented a list of three candidates to His Holiness Pius X for the appointment of the Bishop of Chachapoyas. On September 10 of the same year, Emilio Lissón Chaves, who was in Trujillo, was named Bishop of Chachapoyas. He was a member of the Congregation of the Mission who was distinguished for his deep piety, his rare modesty and his fondness for study. He was also of a firm and resourceful character and of great initiative. He was thirty-seven years old at the time of his appointment. Until then he had served in Arequipa and Trujillo, two of the most important cities of Peru, and his experience was that of teacher and spiritual director in the seminary schools of those cities.
Chachapoyas is located on the eastern slope of the Andes; it was a center of modest farmers with a vast territory, some 96,000 square miles, extending from the Andes to the Ceja de Selva; whose episcopal jurisdiction then included the current departments of Amazonas, San Martin and Loreto. Its inhabitants were largely illiterate and the Gospel had not reached many indigenous communities, lacked communication routes, had a primitive economy, based on agriculture, in which trade prevailed.
8. His great missionary work in Chachapoyas
On his arrival in Chachapoyas he was received by the local clergy. He immediately realized the need to raise their numbers through diocesan recruitment and training and the collaboration of regular clergy; from 1913 onwards, twelve Spanish Passionist missionaries accepted his call and he assigned them to various parishes in the diocese, some of them located in remote villages in the jungle. He also obtained the assistance of the Franciscans to run the Diocesan College. Monsignor Lissón could not forget his vocation as a teacher nor neglect his mission to protect the underprivileged and to proclaim the Gospel among those who had no knowledge of the Good News of Salvation. At times he felt like the first missionaries of the 16th century. He was distressed by the lack of resources, the distance, the indifference. He worked with joy, without rest breaks: prayer and his unshakeable faith gave him strength.
To get to know the situation, make direct contact with the faithful and remedy the needs of his diocese, he made two pastoral visits. His means of transport were the canoe, the mule and not infrequently the cart of San Fernando: a little while on foot and another walking. He gave himself totally to the service of his flock, placing himself at the side of the poor and worrying about the education of children and the formation of new priests, at the same time as organizing the ad gentes missions. He considered himself a missionary bishop but also paid attention to the needs of urban centers.
During his pastoral visits he noticed the lack of infrastructure to make the most of the area’s natural resources. To remedy this he devoted himself to social promotion and set up mechanics workshops, a printing press, a sawmill, a carpentry workshop, a warehouse and a rice mill. At the same time he organized the missions, opened a minor college with a residence for the students and, following the example of Saint Toribio de Mogrovejo, who was very much in his thoughts, he convened four diocesan synods in the years 1911, 1913, 1916 and 1918. He was not authoritarian. On the contrary, he saw his mission as the product of a common and coordinated effort. His activity knew no rest, nothing could stop his will to serve, his desire to socially promote the community by providing it with the necessary material instruments while continuing to preach the gospel message.
During the nine years of his apostolic mission in Chachapoyas, he made two trips to Rome to fulfill the ad Limina visit that Bishops must periodically make to meet with the Holy Father and venerate the tombs of Peter and Paul.
Bishop Lissón said that when Pius X received him, the Pope said: Son, you need more legs than brains to be Bishop of Chachapoyas. Bishop Lissón replied with humility: Your Holiness, that is a pastoral requirement that I do have.
9. Archbishop of Lima
With the episcopal see of Lima vacant, President José Pardo requested the Holy See to promote the Bishop of Chachapoyas as the XXVII Archbishop of Lima. On February 25, 1918, Bishop Emilio Lissón was consecrated Archbishop of Lima and Primate of Peru, and he took possession of the see in a solemn ceremony held in the cathedral of Lima, with the attendance of the diocesan clergy, religious and the civil authorities.
The traditional residence of the Archbishops, located next to the Church of Sagrario and the Cathedral, was in poor condition. Monsignor Lissón chose to occupy some premises in the Seminary of Santo Toribio, which reminded him of his years of teaching and allowed him to closely follow the formation of the future priests, whom he directed in useful afternoon talks to refine their spiritual formation. Awakening and encouraging vocations as well as promoting the integral formation of those who aspired to the priesthood was a permanent concern of Archbishop Lissón. He issued strict regulations to govern the life of the clergy, to promote the authority of the Church’s teachings and to encourage the teaching of Christian doctrine.
During his time as bishop, five minor primary and secondary education seminaries were created, including the “Externado de Santo Toribio” in Lima, which he entrusted to the De La Salle Brothers, having requested their services through the Generalate of the Congregation in 1920.
In those years Monsignor Lissón planned the creation of a Catholic University named after Bartolomé Herrera, but he was unable to carry it out due to a lack of support in every sense.
The structures of society were being transformed by the trends of the 20th century towards a new vision of social structures and a desire for equality and justice. The government of Augusto B. Leguía had been legitimized and a Constituent Assembly had issued a new Constitution that allowed the immediate re-election of the Head of State, in contrast to the constitutional tradition that had always prohibited it. This is not the occasion to examine the eleven years – from 1919 to 1930 – in which Augusto B. Leguía ruled with an iron but elegant hand. However, it must be recognized that during this long regime the country was modernized, public works and irrigation projects were carried out. This recognition, which is increasing day by day, could well be described as an in crescendo vindication of President Leguía.
The Archbishop of Lima was not unaware of the situation the country was going through. He had direct knowledge of the suffering of the working class and for this reason he promoted the construction of houses for the workers, at the same time as he supported the publication of the magazine La Tradición and encouraged the foundation of Catholic Action to spread the teachings of the Church and its social doctrine.
The acute problems of the proletariat and the need to address them from a perspective of peace and social justice encouraged Bishop Lissón, inspired by the Encyclical De Rerum Novarum that Leo XIII had promulgated at the end of the 19th century, to issue a pastoral in which he proposed:
- Rational and equitable participation in the profits of industrial enterprises, as well as in the risks arising therefrom. It should be noted, of course, that wages are the primary form of such participation.
- Workers shall have representation on the boards of industry.
- The share of the profits that corresponds to the worker, in addition to his or her wages, shall be determined by mutual agreement.
- As a guarantee of job security, workers will have a portion of their wages set aside by the capitalist, according to his conditions and in inverse proportion to the number of members in the worker’s family. This reserve will be handed over to the worker together with his share of the profits when the balance sheet is drawn up at the agreed time.
It is not difficult to imagine the reaction of employers to these novel proposals from the prelate, which in their time were seen as disruptive of relations between employers and workers, harmful to the interests of companies and as episcopal interference in matters that were not within his competence.
His pastoral work, his concern for the social good, his silent works of charity, earned the Archbishop the affection and support of the people of Lima. He visited Lima’s parishes, hospitals and schools, walking the streets of the city or riding the trams, which were then the only means of urban transport.
President Leguía, who felt the need to increase his popularity and who, from 1921, had inaugurated a policy of cheerful and extravagant celebrations, never missed an opportunity to demonstrate his affection for Bishop Lissón. He arranged for the austere archiepiscopal palace of Santo Toribio to be rebuilt in an imaginative neo-colonial style on the eve of the centenaries of the independence of Peru and of the battles of Junín and Ayacucho, which consolidated that independence. In addition, as a gesture of friendship, the President gave Bishop Lissón a car, which he sold and donated the proceeds to charity. So that the prelate could travel in comfort, the President made a presidential car available to Bishop Lissón.
These were gestures of courtesy that did not compromise the independence of the Archbishop, who lived austerely.
10. Consecration of Peru to the Sacred Heart of Jesus
On April 25, 1923, after having heard the opinion of all the Peruvian bishops, Bishop Lissón published a Pastoral Letter announcing the celebration of a solemn ceremony for the consecration of Peru to the Sacred Heart of Jesus as a testimony of the Peruvian people’s pure devotion and of the role of the Church in the spiritual and social life of the country. President Leguía, in his capacity as Patron of the Church in Peru, expressed his support for the initiative and communicated his desire to preside over the ceremony.
Thus a religious manifestation became a political act. The reaction of the director of the magazine Variedades, the writer Clemente Palma, the opposition newspaper El Comercio and the Student Federation, presided over by Víctor Haya de la Torre, was immediate. While Clemente Palma and the newspaper El Comercio limited themselves to lodging a protest, the Student Federation organized a demonstration on May 23, which degenerated into serious acts of vandalism against the churches.
In private conversations, Haya de la Torre stated that days before May 23, he met with Bishop Lissón – his former professor at the seminary in Trujillo – to express to him that the demonstration that was being organized was not against him or the Church, but against President Leguía.
The President was aware that his popularity was declining on the eve of the renewal of his presidential term and was taking the necessary measures to gain political support. He did not fail to demonstrate his adherence to the Church by attending religious functions, praising the work of the Catholic hierarchy and facilitating its social promotion programs.
In February 1929, when the campaign for the presidential elections had begun, the Apostolic Nuncio Bishop Gaetano Cicognani, in a ceremony held in the Government Palace attended by the Catholic Hierarchy of Lima, the Diplomatic Corps and the civil authorities, conferred on President Augusto B. Leguía the insignia of Knight of the Military Order of Christ, the highest pontifical decoration that had been granted to him by His Holiness Pius XI.
11. Fall of President Leguía and exile of Monsignor Lissón
After eleven years in power, the regime established in 1919 by Augusto B. Leguía, which had become a dictatorship, collapsed as a result of a coup d’état led in Arequipa by Commander Luis Miguel Sánchez Cerro, who had the support of Arequipa’s intellectuals and the backing of the majority of the nation.
Once the former president was imprisoned, a National Sanction Tribunal was set up before which Bishop Emilio Lissón was accused of having legitimized the dictatorial regime by forcing the Catholic sentiment of the majority of Peruvian society. He was also accused of having embezzled the assets of the Archbishopric through the creation of the Ecclesiastical Trust and the investment of funds from companies destined to economic failure. Some clergymen even claimed that the Archbishop lacked a solid theological education.
With these accusations, Bishop Lissón paid for his adherence to the social doctrine of the Church, his moral rectitude, his independence, his loyalty to doctrine, his righteousness, his dedication to the poor, his longing for peace and social justice. The Sanction Tribunal examined the accusations against the prelate and rejected them in full.
Those who directed politics during those turbulent years were not satisfied and they made their reservations against Bishop Lissón known to the Holy See, renewing the accusations of having unduly interfered in politics, of having mismanaged the Church’s assets and of lacking a solid theological education. He should have been defended. What authority could the civil authorities or a group of priests have to renew accusations against Bishop Lissón that had been dismissed by a court of law, and who could doubt the solid theological training of someone who had been rigorously trained at the Seminario Mayor de Arequipa and at the Theologate of the Congregation of the Mission in Paris, where he had as a teacher the well-known Lazarist missionary Father Guillaume Pouget, who had a profound influence on a large number of university professors and students of the time, such as: Jacques Chevalier, Jean Guitton, Emmanuel Mounier, Gabriel Marcel, etc.
The Archbishop met with the Apostolic Nuncio, who informed him that Rome would prefer him to abandon his see in Lime. He obeyed and voluntarily accepted his exile. In Rome he requested an audience with Pius XI, which he was granted on February 20, 1931. He knelt down, kissed the fisherman’s ring and with an emotional and clear voice began to expose the truth of the events. The Pontiff interrupted him and said: You have nothing to defend yourself against, there is no canonical accusation against you; we have used this paternal procedure for your good and that of the parishioners.
There were no accusations, he had a clear conscience and he felt in communion with God. He chose to formally resign from the post of Archbishop of Lima and in Rome to retire with humility to the International House of the Congregation of the Mission on Via Marco Antonio Colonna.
Bishop Mariano Holguín took over the management of the Archbishopric as Apostolic Administrator from 1931 to 1933, the year in which Bishop Pedro Pascual Farfán was consecrated Archbishop of Lima.
12. Stay in Rome
Bishop Emilio Lissón was appointed titular Archbishop of Methymna. He asked to return to Peru as a parish priest in Chachapoyas or as a missionary in the Amazon. His request was not granted.
Bishop Lissón lacked financial resources; he had always lived austerely, discreetly, moderately. In Rome he had to find a way of earning an income to meet his needs.
As a simple priest he acted as a guide to those who visited the catacombs and the churches of Rome. In the Congregation of the Mission he heard the confessions of seminarians and priests, whom he also guided and advised. He was also chaplain to the Religious of the Sacred Heart, a Congregation of Peruvian origin, and was asked to lead spiritual retreats in various religious communities. But he also found time to study archaeology and the history of the Church and to carry out research in the Vatican Archives. In 1935, the great Peruvian historian Raúl Porras Barrenechea turned to him for copies of documents and printed matter preserved in the Vatican Archives and Library, intended for the volume Las relaciones primitivas de la conquista del Perú.
In those same years he had had the opportunity to meet Monsignor Marcelino Olaechea y Loizaga, Bishop of Pamplona, and the future Cardinal of Seville Pedro Segura, who encouraged him to move to Spain, where the ravages of the civil war had decimated the clergy.
13. Bishop Lissón in Spain
With the due authorization, the Archbishop emmeritus of Lima left Rome and embarked on May 24, 1940, bound for Spain, where he arrived on June 6 of the same year, being received by members of the Congregation of the Mission. With the help of the Congregation, he undertook a pilgrimage through the lands of Ignatius of Loyola, Teresa of Jesus and John of the Cross, which allowed him to deepen both his mysticism and devotion by meditating on the exceptional work, writings and inspirations of these Spanish mystics.
On his arrival in Seville he headed for the Vincentian house where he was welcomed with a fraternal spirit and remained there while waiting to be able to serve in that diocese as a missionary. The Archbishop of Seville, Cardinal Segura, called him to ask him to act as Auxiliary Bishop. He returned to the apostolate, as he had done in Lima, drawing close to the poor and assisting, in particular, the devout and joyful gypsy community. He would travel on foot, stopping from house to house, blessing the sick and assisting the dying.
At the same time he compiled documentation, 4,533 in total, in the Archivo de Indias to be published in the five-volume work Historia de la Iglesia de España en el Perú, in which he documented the history of Peru from 1522 to 1800, demonstrating his patient dedication to history. Three of Peru’s great historians – José Agustín de la Puente y Candamo, Guillermo Lohmann Villena and Miguel Maticorena – witnessed his patient work in the Archivo de Indias in Seville, as well as his devoted affection for the gypsies and beggars of Seville.
The five volumes were published in Seville in 1943. Reading them allows us, for example, to get an idea of the impact that the discovery of Peru had on the court of Charles V; the Emperor’s desire to promote evangelization, to avoid mistreatment and the desire to take care of Atahualpa’s children, as can be seen in a Royal Decree of 1547, preserved in the Archivo de Indias: Audiencia de Lima 566, Book 5, Folio 50.
The documentary account of Bishop Lissón is not only of prime importance for the history of the Church in Peru, but is also essential for locating the documentation needed in Spanish archives to write the history of the formation of Peruvian society between 1532 and 1800.
In 1950 Spain still had a shortage of bishops due to the fact that thirteen dioceses had been left vacant after the civil war. Bishop Lissón made himself available to the Episcopal Conference to administer the sacraments, especially that of confirmation and that of ordination to the priesthood, as well as to carry out pastoral visits. The Bishop of Valencia, Bishop Marcelino Olaechea invited him to move to that city and gave him hospitality in the Episcopal Palace. He was very active in Valencia, Seville, Badajoz, Alicante, Teruel, Cuenca, Madrid, Salamanca, Albacete, Jaén, Murcia and wherever he was sent; he always acted trusting in Divine Providence.
Spain was going through a troubled period in its history, civil war had left groups like the clergy devastated. Poverty was widespread in the countryside, in the villages and in the cities. Widows and orphans suffered in silence. Bishop Lissón would go to their homes bringing the comfort of his words and whatever material assistance he could offer. He would give away his coat, his hat, his umbrella and sometimes even his episcopal ring to help those in need. He would stay in the modest homes of the peasants, sharing their joys and their hardships. He would recite the Rosary with them.
The gypsies of Seville and Valencia respected him for his availability, because he helped them materially and spiritually, because he understood their needs. They called him: Monseñó er zanto, “Bishop, the Saint”. Bourgeois, villagers and peasants called him the Bishop of the poor. A driving force, the grace of the Lord, led him to carry out these works of charity.
When he was in Huelva, in March 1945, the brothers of Nuestro Padre Jesús en las Penas de las Tres Caídas invited him to bless that miraculous image and, in recognition, gratitude and admiration for his apostolic work and as an expression of filial affection, he was named Honorary Elder Brother.
He always showed a lucid understanding and a firm will to serve.
Twenty years had passed since his fortuitous departure from Lima and he requested permission to return to Peru without seeking any position of honor. He wanted to return to his homeland, to put an end to his exile… He was authorized but on the condition that he take up residence in Arequipa. At the same time, he was told that it would be more appropriate for him to continue his work close to the prelates of Seville and Valencia. He accepted the suggestion and chose to remain in Spain.
He had given up on returning to Peru, but he dreamed of the clear skies of Arequipa, of the gentle murmur of the Amazonian rivers, of the perfumed green of the forests, of the Lima drizzle. He never uttered a word against his accusers. On the contrary, in his heart, he had forgiven them and commended them to the mercy of God.
He continued his work as Auxiliary Bishop of Seville and Valencia. He went from one city to another preaching the Gospel clearly without literary flourishes, showing his total dedication, his infinite capacity to obey and to serve with selflessness and joy.
14. Illness, death and return to Lima
Bishop Lissón in his old age.
In 1960 he lost his ability to speak and could no longer celebrate daily mass; he occupied himself by looking at the crucifix, praying the Rosary and reading Kempis’ Devout Life. He had the support of his close friend Bishop Olaechea, who appointed a Brother to look after him at all times. The same was done by his personal secretary, Father Puertas, as well as the Daughters of Charity and the Vincentian Fathers of Valencia. He died in the Archbishop’s Palace in Valencia on December 24, 1961, after fifteen days in a coma, leaving behind the memory of an exemplary life, of his teachings, of his charity and an example of perfection and resignation throughout his earthly life. On the 26th, the funeral was held in the cathedral, presided over by Bishop Olaechea and attended by many priests, men and women religious and the faithful. He was buried in the Cathedral of Valencia, where he rested until July 24, 1991, when his remains were returned to Peru, to the cathedral of Lima. Bishops, canons, priests, Vincentian priests, Daughters of Charity, nuns from various congregations and a large group of the faithful received them as the relics of a saint. Those who witnessed the identification of the body stated that his body was incorrupt and that it was the subject of an emotional supernatural encounter. Since the feast day of St. James the Apostle, July 25, 1991, his mortal remains have been venerated in the Cathedral of Lima, in the chapel of St. Rose of Lima. In February 1992, the 55 bishops of the Peruvian Episcopal Conference, after a long debate, voted unanimously that it was time to begin the process of introducing the cause of canonization of the 27th Archbishop and Metropolitan of Lima, the Vincentian missionary Bishop Emilio Francisco Lissón Chaves.
15. On the way to the altars
On September 20, 2003, the Archbishop of Valencia set up an Ecclesiastical Tribunal based in Spain and other Vice-Tribunals to examine the exemplary life and heroic virtues of Bishop Lissón in order to postulate his beatification.
Similarly, on July 20, 2004, the Archbishop of Lima, Cardinal Juan Luis Cipriani, instituted the corresponding Vice-Tribunal, in which Bishop Raimundo Revoredo Ruiz, of the Congregation of the Mission, assumed the postulation of the cause.
On that occasion Cardinal Cipriani declared that the fact that the case was being opened before the Vice-Tribunal in Lima was a cause of great joy for our Archdiocese and for the whole country. He added: For us, the successors of Monsignor Lissón, it is our duty to imitate his virtues and to ask God to bless our Peruvian land once again over the course of these years as a possible new saint.
I end this account of Bishop Emilio Lissón Chaves, Bishop of the Poor, by quoting the final part of a text that Víctor Andrés Belaúnde wrote about Bishop Lissón’s first Pastoral Letter as Archbishop of Lima: Those of us who believe that religious sentiment constitutes a treasure of spiritual strength that should not be extinguished, those of us who want the Church to fulfill its mission with complete freedom and efficiency, far from narrow interests and the murky aims of an impossible political domination, must enthusiastically take up the words of Monsignor Lissón and greet them as a new dawn for Catholicism in Peru (La Pastoral del Arzobispo, Mercurio Peruano, 1918).
José Antonio Ubillús Lamadrid, C.M
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