Juan Gabriel Martínez Landaverde is a priest of the diocese of Santa Ana, El Salvador.
"From a very young age my family introduced me to the beauty of being a Christian and, as I grew up between farm work activities and study, I was included in the apostolate of catechesis for children and young people at St. Michael the Archangel parish.
Little by little the Lord let me see the call to live the priestly vocation and so I began my discernment that culminated with my entrance to the Propaedeutic Seminary in 2010.
Subsequently, I began philosophy courses at the St. John XXIII Major Seminary. By the Providence of God I was awarded a scholarship to pursue my studies at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross, together with the International Ecclesiastical College Sedes Sapientiae, from 2012 to 2017.
Those were years that marked my life because of the closeness to the Holy Father and the land of the first martyrs as well as the palpable experience of the University of the Church.
While still a theology student I was ordained a deacon on May 14, 2017, and returned to the Diocese of Santa Ana, in El Salvador. I received the grace of being ordained a priest on February 10, 2018 and was assigned to St. Rose of Lima Parish as Parochial Vicar.
From then until now I have worked in the apostolate with young people, children and adolescents. Even though I have only been a priest for a few years, I have felt how my life has been filled with joy in serving others, experiencing in my own flesh how the Lord is faithful to his word and gives a hundredfold to all those who follow him".
"In this year I have started my degree in Biblical Theology and I am very grateful for this opportunity to study at the University of Navarra.
My heartfelt thanks and prayers to all those who collaborate in various ways with the noble cause of helping in the formation of priests with a solid foundation of doctrine and a special human foundation. I remind you that God blesses the cheerful giver. May God repay you in blessings for all the effort you make for us."
