Roman Catholic Cardinal. Born to a poor and humble family in Quintana del Pidio, Ciriaco María Sancha y Hervás was so ill at birth that his parents decided to baptize him in emergency the same day he was born. Entering seminary in Burgos, he furthered his studies at the Pontifical University of Salamanca, from where he earned a licentiate in theology. Ordained priest on June 27, 1858 inside the chapel of the Bishopric of Osma by the local Ordinary, Msgr. Vicente Horcos y San Martín, he was immediately assigned to lecture philosophy at Seminary of Osma. Serving in the latter position until 1862, he moved to the archdiocese of Santiago de Cuba as chancellor, secretary to the archbishop and professor of moral theology. Founding the Congregation of the Hermanas de la Caridad on August 5, 1869, when the archdiocese became vacant due to the death of the archbishop in 1868, the Republican Spanish Government named, without the consent of the Holy See, Don Pedro Llorente Miguel as Ordinary in 1873. Opposing to this appointment, both the vicar capitular, Msgr. José María Orberá Carrión and Msgr. Sancha found themselves in jail. With the schism brought to and end in 1874, Sancha was eventually appointed auxiliary for the archdiocese of Toledo, receiving his episcopal consecration with the titular see of Areopolis at the collegiate church of San Isidro in Madrid from Cardinal Juan de la Cruz Ignacio Moreno y Maisonave, archbishop of Toledo. Transferred to the see of Ávila on March 27, 1882 and later to the see of Madrid y Alcalá de Henares on June 10, 1886, Msgr. Sancha y Hervás was named assistant at the Pontifical throne on May 4, 1888, and promoted to the metropolitan see of Valencia on July 11, 1892. Pope Leo XIII created him cardinal priest in the consistory of May 18, 1894 with the title of San Pietro in Montorio. Transferred to the primatial and metropolitan see of Toledo with the titular patriarchate of the West Indies on March 24, 1898, the Cardinal died in Toledo on February 26, 1909. Exposed and buried in the cathedral of Toledo, during an audience given to Cardinal José Saraiva Martins CMF., prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of the Saints on April 28, 2006, Pope Benedict XVI authorized the Congregation to promulgate several decrees of canonization, beatification and declaration of heroic virtues of Cardinal Sancha. In March 2008, celebrations were held in Spain and in America to commemorate the centennial of his death, which included among others, the canonical exhumation of his remains. His beatification took place in Toledo on October 18, 2009.