VENERABLE FATHER FÉLIX VARELA: APOSTLE OF THE (IRISH) IMMIGRANTS

Posted by Jim on September 10, 2019

Father Félix Varela y Morales was born in Havana, Cuba on 20 November, 1788 and raised in St. Augustine, Florida; both of which were under Spanish control. He became a priest at the age of 23. In 1821, he was chosen to represent Cuba in the Spanish Parliament in Madrid. He joined a petition advocating independence from Spain and the abolition of slavery in Cuba. In 1823, he was sentenced to death after the restoration of King Ferdinand VII (The Felon King). He fled to New York.
In New York, Fr. Varela published several newspapers and articles in Spanish and English concerning human rights and religious tolerance. In 1827, he founded a church at 29 Mott Street known as the Church of the Immigrant in the neglected Five Points neighbourhood crowded with Irish immigrants.
It became known as the Church of the Transfiguration. In 1832, he opened a school with the church parish. In 1837, he was appointed Vicar General of the Diocese of New York. He cared especially for the poor Irish immigrant community in New York and specifically in his parish flooding in dramatically during the Great Hunger. Fr. Varela learned to speak the Irish language to better communicate with them. He defended them from religious and nativist prejudice.
In 1848, his health deteriorated from his tireless years of work and from athsma and he returned to St. Augustine, Florida where he died in 1853. His body was later returned to Havana, Cuba where he is buried and where he is well remembered. Cuban National hero José Martí proclaimed his admiration for Father Varela, also calling him a saint. He should be better remembered in New York and should be known in Ireland in my opinion. In 2012, the Vatican declared him “Venerable.” That is a step on the way to beatification.
Kevin Rooney