PROVIDENCE — Miracles are an important part of the beatification process: if it can be demonstrated that a miracle took place in association with a specific saint, this is seen as a sign that their soul is in heaven interceding on our behalf.
The Diocese of Providence assisted in 2014 with an investigation into a miracle alleged to have occurred through the intercession of the Servant of God, Venerable Salvador Valera Parra, a Spanish priest who died in 1889.
On June 20, 2025, Pope Leo XIV approved of a miracle experienced by a Rhode Island resident that took place by the intercession of Father Salvador Valera Parra.
Tyquan Hall, who was born prematurely in January 2007 at Memorial Hospital in Pawtucket, had a low heart rate and showed no signs of breathing, and was therefore on the verge of death. The physician who supervised his birth, Dr. Juan Sánchez-Esteban, worked for 65 minutes to revive the child to no avail. Dr. Sánchez-Esteban was a native of the town of Huércal-Overa in southeastern Spain, the same town that Father Valera had been associated with nearly two centuries earlier, and like many from that region, Dr. Sánchez-Esteban had a strong devotion to the priest. He then began to pray, “Father Valera, I have done everything possible; it is now your turn.”
Just as Dr. Sánchez-Esteban was about to inform the parents of the child’s death, a nurse approached him with news that the child suddenly started breathing and had a normal heartbeat. Those present feared that Tyquan would suffer severe and potentially irreversible brain damage due to the lack of oxygen and blood flow; in spite of this, the child exhibited spontaneous activity, and as the child grew, he underwent normal early childhood development, including learning how to walk and talk, and as little Tyquan grew older, he was even healthy enough to develop a love for sports.
Father Valera’s intercession is often invoked during medical crises due to his association with healing. During his lifetime, Father Valera did much to help his congregation during outbreaks of disease and natural disaster.
Father Valera spent most of his career as a parish priest and is thus seen as exemplifying the virtues associated with self-sacrificial love that define the priestly life. Born in southern Spain in 1816, in 1840, at the age of 24, he was ordained a priest. During his time as a priest, Father Valera was known for living a life of holiness. He lived a life of intense asceticism, becoming renowned for his robust prayer life, fasting and life of simplicity. He was also known for developing a close relationship with his congregation.
Father Valera had a particular concern for the poor. For instance, in 1885 Father Valera, together with St. Teresa Jornet, founded the Little Sisters for the Abandoned Elderly, an order of religious sisters dedicated to caring for the elderly and the dying. When an earthquake and cholera outbreak ravaged his community in 1863, Father Valera quickly went into action to oversee the distribution of resources to the sick, injured and dying.
This holy shepherd of souls developed a strong devotion to the Blessed Sacrament and to Our Lady from an early age, something that he frequently promoted in his spiritual teachings as a priest, and was also known for emphasizing the role of trust in Divine Providence in the life of the individual believer. Father Valera was so dedicated to the care of the souls in his parish that he was eventually elevated to the status of archpriest (a priest charged with the care of multiple communities scattered over a broad area, particularly in isolated or rural regions). His efforts were even recognized by the civil authorities: for his service to the Church, he was awarded the title of Knight of the Royal Order of Isabel the Catholic and Knight of the Civil Order of Charles III.
Father Valera died in 1889, at the age of 73. The Church began the investigation associated with his beatification process in 2014. Father Valera will be beatified in a ceremony scheduled to be held in 2026. He will be among a group of a little under 200 other saints and blessed to be beatified in the same ceremony, most of which are martyrs of the Spanish Civil War or French Catholics who died during the Nazi occupation of France.
