Peter of Saint Joseph Betancur
| Saint Peter of Saint Joseph de Betancur y Gonzáles, O.F.B. | |
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| Religious and missionary | |
| Born | March 21, 1626 Vilaflor, Tenerife, Spanish Empire |
| Died | April 25, 1667 Antigua Guatemala, Captaincy General of Guatemala, Spanish Empire |
| Venerated in |
Roman Catholic Church (Canary Islands & Guatemala) |
| Beatified | June 22, 1980, St. Peter's Basilica, Vatican City by Pope John Paul II |
| Canonized | July 30, 2002, Guatemala City, Guatemala by Pope John Paul II |
| Major shrine | Cave of Santo Hermano Pedro and Sanctuary of the Santo Hermano Pedro (Tenerife) and San Francisco Church in Antigua, Guatemala |
| Feast |
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| Attributes | Holds a walking stick and bell. Occasionally it also represents a spear canary pastor. |
| Patronage | Canary Islands, Guatemala, Central America, catechists of Guatemala, Honorary Mayor of municipalities in the south of Tenerife and Honorary Mayor of Antigua Guatemala, of the homeless. |
Peter of Saint Joseph de Betancur (or Betancourt) y Gonzáles, O.F.B. (Spanish: Pedro de San José de Betancur y Gonzáles, March 21, 1626 (Tenerife) – April 25, 1667 (Antigua Guatemala), called Hermano Pedro de San José Betancurt or more simply Hermano Pedro, Santo Hermano Pedro, or San Pedro de Vilaflor, was a Spanish saint and missionary in Guatemala. Known as the "St. Francis of Assisi of the Americas", he is the first saint native to the Canary Islands, is also considered the first saint of Guatemala and Central America.
Betancourt was born at Vilaflor on the Island of Tenerife in 1626, one of the five children of Amador Betancourt, a descendant of Jean de Béthencourt, the French knight and explorer who conquered the Canary Islands for King Henry III of Castile (1402-1405), and of Ana Gonzáles Betancurt. As a small child, he worked as a shepherd, caring for his family's small flock, their only source of income, but also spending some time praying in small cave in the arid region near the present-day town of El Médano (municipality of Granadilla de Abona). When the father's estate was seized by a moneylender in 1638 for failure to pay the family's debt, Peter was indentured to his service in recompense for the monies still due him. During this period, his eldest brother, Mateo, migrated to Spain's colonies in the New World, possibly settling in Ecuador.
In 1649, at age 23, Betancourt was freed from his period of servitude and decided to follow his brother's example. He set sail for Guatemala, the capital of New Spain, in hopes of connecting with a relative engaged in government service there. By the time he had reached Havana, Cuba, he was out of money. He then spent a year serving a priest there who was also from Tenerife. He had to pay for his passage from that point by working on a ship which docked at Honduras from where he walked to Guatemala City. When he arrived in Guatemala City, he was so destitute that he joined the bread line which the Franciscan friars had established to feed the poor. Eventually he found his uncle who then found him a job in a local textile factory.
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