Alberto Hurtado

1901-1952 20th century Feast day: August 18

Asking what Christ would do, here, now, and doing it.

Who was Alberto Hurtado?

A Chilean Jesuit, trained as a lawyer, fatherless and raised in hardship. In October 1944, after meeting a sick, homeless man in the rain, he made an appeal during a retreat from which the Hogar de Cristo was born: shelters for the homeless, then a journal and a Christian trade-union movement. He died of pancreatic cancer at fifty-one, repeating his gratitude. Canonized in 2005.

In their own words

What would Christ do in my place?

The recurring question of his retreat notes and spiritual writings

Content, Lord, content.

Words repeated on his deathbed, August 1952

Charity begins where justice ends.

Humanismo social, 1947