The fact that a man voluntarily renounced the title of Marquis of Spínola to become the “Archbishop of the beggars” must necessarily be interpreted as a gesture of profound humanity
On January 14, 1835, on the San Fernando island adjacent to the bay of Cadiz, the descendant of the Marquisate of the Spínola was born. “All the blue of the Cadiz bay, says Francisco Gil Delgado, Marcelo Spínola wore in his eyes. All that light had nested in his talent. All his grace had filled her soul. There he was born, in San Fernando, on January 14, 1835, at six in the morning, when dawn began to kiss the puffs of salt”. He was the second of the eight siblings, but it was up to him to inherit the title, since the sister who had preceded him was excluded because she was a woman. His parents Don Juan Spínola and Doña Antonia Maestre, they saw their hopes fulfilled in this male child and their expectations for the future would gravitate on him from now on, which appeared before their eyes as quite predictable. With the passage of time and following a centuries-old tradition, this boy was called to become a noble lord who would add honor and prestige to the coat of arms of the house. The next day he was baptized in the parish of S. Fernando, a city in which he would spend his early childhood years called to be very hectic, due to the constant transfers of his father. Despite all his careful education, he became a priority issue and the continuous transfers were in no way going to be a reason to interrupt his studies.
At the age of ten we see him in Cádiz studying at the school of Sto. He took the first year of high school, later passing through Motril and Valencia, to finish in Seville where he obtained a degree in Law, but the carousel would continue. His father named commander of the port of Huelva, the family had to move to this city, where at the age of 21 the young lawyer opened a law firm. The time you are here goes out of your way to defend the cause of the poor, carries out the lawsuits of people who cannot pay and acquires such popularity that he is already known in the city as the “Lawyer of the poor”, but again due to the transfer of his father he goes to live in Sanlúcar de Barrameda, where Something unexpected was going to happen for the Spinola family, who found out that Marcelo was abandoning his career because he had made the decision to become a priest and had to prepare for himself, without having to enter the seminary, taking care of his religious training Canon Diego Herrero. When the canonically established conditions were fulfilled, he was ordained a priest on May 21, 1864, the same day that his brother Rafael died many kilometers away.
Once ordained a priest, the various appointments will begin. The first of them was to be that of chaplain in Sanlúcar de Barrameda, where he developed his pastoral ministry with zeal and dedication, then he would be appointed, pastor of S. Lorenzo in Seville where he would take care of the famous brotherhood of Jesús del Gran Poder, leading carried out a series of initiatives aimed at training the poorest classes. In 1879 he was appointed canon of the Seville cathedral and the following year he was appointed auxiliary bishop of this same diocese. Upon the death of the Archbishop of Seville, he was transferred to Coria-Cáceres where he was able to carry out intensive and effective work. Despite the short time that he remained in this diocese, gaining the affection and trust of all. While here he had the opportunity to visit Las Hurdes, a region that belonged to this diocese and was the most impoverished area in Spain. During this period he founded the Congregation of the Conceptionist Slaves of the Divine Heart, on June 26, 1885. De Coria would go on to occupy the diocese of Malaga, where D. Marcelo would become known for his apostolic zeal in promoting works and social institutions , for his administrative capacity in matters of his competence and for the impulse in favor of the religious formation of children and young people.
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Finally came the return to his dear Seville, on being appointed on December 2, 1895, archbishop of this archiepiscopal see. Here sad days awaited him because everything was in turmoil then in Spain and also in this capital. To begin with, he was accused of being fundamentalist, which raised suspicions in some sectors and was also involved in a controversy with the archbishop-primate of Toledo, the matter reaching Rome from where he was ordered to cut. Nor were his relations with the Crown to be good. His achievements were to be in the field of education and communication. It is due to him that the Seville Seminary acquired the rank of Pontifical University and his merit was also the foundation of the Mail of Andalusia. His performance motivated by the terrible drought in 1905 is noteworthy, when he was seen on the streets of Seville begging for alms in order to help the poor. In little than a month he had to make two trips to Madrid, which further broke his delicate health, dying a few days in Seville on January 19, 1906. Cardinal Spínola will be remembered for his austerity and faithful fulfillment of his episcopal obligations and above all for his generosity towards the poor.
Reflection from the current context:
The fact that a man voluntarily renounced the title of Marquis of Spínola to become the “Archbishop of the beggars”, must necessarily be interpreted as a gesture of deep humanity, which, undoubtedly in times of great social sensitivity such as the ones we now live in, is a reason why even those who live far from the faith may think that if only for that reason Christianity it’s good for the whole society
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