Blessed Carlos Manuel Rodriguez; 1918 - 1963

By SISTER IRENE HARTMAN, OP
Holy Ones of Our Time

Carlos Manuel Rodriguez came from a deeply religious family in Puerto Rico. He lived a normal life with one brother and three sisters. Two sisters married and the third became a Carmelite nun. His brother became a Benedictine priest and was the first Puerto Rican to be named abbot of a monastery.
At the age of six, Carlos began his elementary education and did very well in school. During his high school days, he developed an illness which haunted him the rest of his life. After high school, Carlos had a clerical job, but his main interest was encouraging others to develop a love for Christ.
Carlos started college but was unable to advance because of health reasons. A friend tutored him; Carlos was an avid reader, and thus became a very intelligent man. As an office clerk, Carlos worked for an agricultural station but spent his spare time dispensing Catholic materials, editing Catholic journals, and writing and lecturing about the faith. He translated into English some Spanish books on faith and morals. He became a talented teacher of the Sacrifice of the Mass which was only offered in Latin at that time. Carlos published at his own expense a magazine called  Liturgy and Christian Culture. He did all these things even though he was serving in a clerical position and feeling ill most of the time.
By the beginning of 1963, Carlos showed signs of serious health conditions. He found that he was tired most of the time and suffered from anemia. Rectal cancer was diagnosed and he underwent surgery  which resulted in a painful skin irritation. Carlos was moved to a private dispensary and there confided to his doctor, “I suffer not so much for myself as for so many other sick people who have no one to take care of them when they ask for something so basic as a glass of water.” Carlos never complained in his sufferings but asked pardon for causing inconvenience to others. Later his doctors found tumors in his liver and throughout the rest of his body.
Added to his physical sufferings, Carlos endured the “Dark Night  of the Soul.” Daily reception of the Eucharist eventually caused the Dark Night to leave him in peace. After lapsing into a coma, Carlos died on July 13, 1963, at the age of 44.
The process leading to his beatification was one of the shortest in recent history. He was declared Venerable in 1997, and beatified on April 29, 2001.