Mancunian student could be the first Gen Z saint

The Bishop of Salford has opened the cause for sainthood of a 21-year-old Mancunian Pedro Ballester who died in 2018. Bishop John Arnold said Pedro Ballester was “known for his warmth, generosity and hard work”.

After taking up a place to study Chemical Engineering at Imperial College, London, Ballester developed chronic back pain and was diagnosed by the end of his first term with advanced cancer of the pelvis.

Ballester accepted this “as a way of sharing in Christ’s Cross”, said Bishop Arnold in the edict officially opening the cause for his beatification and canonisation. “He offered his suffering for the Pope, the Church, and all souls, showing remarkable serenity and faith.”

Born in Manchester in May 1996, Pedro was the son of Dr Pedro Ballester Nebot and Esperanza Arenas Arguelles. Both Spaniards, they had met in England after switching country for professional reasons. After marrying, they had three sons: Pedro, Carlos and Javier and in 2004, moved to Harrogate in Yorkshire.

Ballester’s parents belonged the prelature of Opus Dei and in 2013, their son chose to join Opus Dei as a numerary, or member committed to lifelong celibacy.

“When he first told me about his vocation, I remember thinking that he had found a girl. I had noticed that he was a lot happier,” recalled his brother Carlos.

“He loved fishing, tennis, football, cricket, and was very good at ping-pong,” recalled his brother Javier. “He very much liked just to be with people.” He added that his brother bred canaries.

“He always had some weird pets and was really into a history,” recalled a female friend in a film about Ballester, which may be seen at www.pedroballester.org.uk/watch-the-film.

From 2015 until his death in 2018 Ballester received medical treatment in the Christie Hospital, Manchester and briefly in Heidelberg Germany, where a short-lived improvement in his health enabled him to meet Pope Francis in Rome in November 2015. He died on 13 January 2018. More than 500 people attended his funeral, celebrated by the future Cardinal Arthur Roche at Holy Name Church, Manchester.

‘Pedro was very much an ordinary person with defects and struggles. Sometimes the suffering got him down, particularly that it went on for so long. At times he would cry. He could be occasionally irritated or react against what he considered excessive sentimentality. But his struggle was very real and exceptionally brave,” said Fr Joseph Evans, the chaplain of Greygarth Hall, an Opus Dei residence in Manchester where Ballester lived in 2017 between stays in hospital.

Bishop Arnold is inviting anyone with memories, information or evidence of the holiness of Pedro Ballester Arenas to contact the diocesan tribunal at tribunal@dioceseofsalford.org.uk

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