Luis was born in Spain in 1819, and lived there his whole life. His father was a lawyer and died when Luis was only 16 years old. His mother was a deeply religious woman of noble blood who spent her life educating her children in the faith. Luis decided to follow in his father’s footsteps and he chose to study civil law at the University of Santiago. After he graduated, he taught civil law at that same university and opened his own law firm shortly afterwards in Madrid. He served as a Judge as well in the capitol city. His passion to help people grew and he ran for governor when he was only 34 years old. He put no limits on himself when it came to trying to help others. He was known to be the “lawyer of the poor” because he would represent them free of charge. He worked on commissions to free prisoners of the death penalty and prove their innocence if they were un justly sentenced. When he was 35 years old, he founded a major newspaper and helped to start the Society of St Vincent de Paul in his hometown. During this time Luis was a man of prayer and action, but it was in 1862 that he developed a deeper devotion to Eucharistic Adoration. At this same time he met his future wife Adelaida, who was a widow with a son. Luis and Adelaida were married in 1863 and they had one daughter named Maria. Luis was known to be a loving father and husband. During this time his devotion and love for the Eucharist grew and in 1868 he became in charge of the national organization dedicated to perpetual Eucharistic Adoration. The organization had 6300 members at the time. This was the beginning of the Nocturnal Adoration Society which he founded in 1877. Luis spent the rest of his life spreading this devotion for the Eucharist to as many places as possible. He died in 1891 of natural causes at the age of 72 after a life serving others. In 2015 Pope Francis declared him venerable because of his heroic virtues.
