Brother ADRIANO DEL CERRO SÁNCHEZ

Born at Retamoso de la Jara (Toledo) on 2 July 1923.

Died in Jerez de la Frontera on 8 August 2015.

At the age of 27 he decided to consecrate himself to the Lord and, after confiding this wish to his parish priest, the latter referred him to the Brothers of St John of God, who accepted him at their Psychiatric Institute in Ciempozuelos to care for the mentally ill. On 25 April 1951 he was admitted to the Novitiate; on 26 April 1952 he made his simple profession, and on 26th April 1955 his solemn profession.

On 15 September 1952 he was transferred to the Jerez hospital community dedicated to the rehabilitation of the many children suffering from poliomyelitis or tuberculosis of the bones, for whom he was given the task of begging as he walked the streets of Jerez every day. He boldly repeated that "Asking for charity for people in need is putting our love for God into practice".

His days spent in contact with so many generous people are rich in episodes that reveal a simple, honest Brother dealing with large sums of money, and yet poor. He wore very worn-out shoes and, when he went out of town to beg, he was sometimes driven there in the hospital car.

After a short stay in Madrid and then in Ciempozuelos, he was transferred back to Jerez in 1962, where he continued to beg until his death, no longer for the hospital, which by then had become a General Hospital, but for the many needy families or immigrants who came to him for food or to help pay their electricity and water bills or their rent.

The city of Jerez has expressed its gratitude to him with signs of goodwill, naming a street after him, placing a bust of Brother Adriano in the hospital vestibule, and a historian has written his biography, entitled "Brother Adriano. God’s Almoner. Life, work and adventures of Brother Adriano del Cerro”.

His body was buried in the Church of the Community of Jerez, in the company of St John Grande (1546-1600), the founder of the hospital, and Blessed Brother Manuel Jiménez Salado (1907-1936), a martyr of the Spanish civil war and of religious persecution.