Roman Catholic Cardinal. Benejama born Miguel Antonio Domingo Payá y Rico received his elementary studies at the primary schools of Biar and Onil and graduated from high school in Valencia. Furthering his studies in philosophy and theology at the local university, he was ordained priest on September 24, 1836. Named pastor of his hometown in 1841, he built the village church during his tenure. In 1844, he was named professor of the university and of the seminary of Valencia, where for twenty four years he lectured metaphysics, literature, history, mathematics and theology. In the meantime, he founded the newspaper "El Eco de la Religión". Beneficiary and later lectoral canon of the cathedral chapter of Valencia, he was appointed bishop of the diocese of Cuenca, receiving his episcopal consecration on September 12, 1858 at the cathedral of Valencia. In 1870, he raised his fame as a theologian with a speech given during the First Vatican Council through which he defended the infallibility of the Pope as dogma of faith. His speech was published in Cuenca in 1873. Elected senator for Vizcaya in 1871, he confronted the Carlistas when they occupied Cuenca in 1873. Promoted to the metropolitan see of Santiago de Compostela on January 16, 1874, Pope Pius IX appointed him cardinal priest in the consistory of March 12, 1877 with the title of Ss. Quirico e Giulitta. During his episcopate in Santiago, the remains of Saint James the Apostle, that were hidden in the 16th century for fear of incursions by the pirate Sir Francis Drake on the Galician coast, were rediscovered inside the main altar of the cathedral of Santiago. The Cardinal commissioned the Santiago de Compostela University to analyze the remains and also took care of the restoration of the named cathedral. Transferred to the primatial and metropolitan see of Toledo and the titular patriarchate of the West Indies on June 7, 1886, that same year he baptized King Alfonso XIII of Spain. During his tenure, the Conjo Asylum and the Seminary of Toledo were constructed. The Cardinal governed the archdiocese until his death at eighty years of age on December 25, 1891. His remains are found buried in front of the Capilla del Sagrario inside the metropolitan cathedral of Toledo. A bust in his memory has been since erected inside the church of San Juan Bautista in Benejama, Alicante, where he was baptized.