page_title: Didacus of Alcalá
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Didacus of Alcalá / History
context_page_description: Didacus of Alcalá, also known as Diego de San Nicolás, was a Spanish Franciscan lay brother who served as among the first group of missionaries to the newly conquered Canary Islands. He died at Alcalá de Henares on 12 November 1463 and is now honored by the Catholic Church as a saint.
context_section_description: Didacus was born c. 1400 into a poor but pious family in the small village of San Nicolás del Puerto in the Kingdom of Seville. His parents gave him the name of Diego, a derivative of Santiago (St. James), the patron saint of Spain. As a child, he embraced the hermit life and, later, placed himself under the direction of a hermit priest living not far from his native town. He then led the life of a wandering hermit. Feeling called to the religious life, he applied for admission to the Observant (or Reformed) branch of the Order of Friars Minor at the friary in Albaida and was sent to the friary in Arruzafa, near Córdoba, where he was received as a lay brother.
  During his years living in that location, he journeyed to the villages in the regions surrounding Córdoba, Cádiz and Seville, where he would preach to the people. A strong devotion to him still exists in those towns.
caption: Saint Didacus in Ecstasy Before the Cross by Murillo, 1645-6
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