Hermandad de la Santa Caridad (SEVILLA)

Miguel Mañara y Vicentelo de Leca

Introduction

The construction of La Santa Caridad Church and Hospital were largely due to Don Miguel Mañara, the Seville aristocrat, who was the soul of the Brotherhood for seventeen years. His creative driving force was fundamental when it came to giving a new impulse to the activity of the brothers and also to developing thoughts and ideas to confer a transcendental meaning upon the Institution. His thinking, which still holds to this day, fills the Brotherhood of La Santa Caridad with a spirit of love for the poor and sick, rooted in tradition and adapted to the needs of the modern world.

Don Miguel Mañara's thinking was therefore decisive to give a new meaning and a new direction to the charitable institution. It has existed since the Middle Ages and which originally only dedicated itself to burying the dead.

Mañara understood that the Brotherhood of La Santa Caridad had to extend its activity to performing all kinds of charity works. This he did, thus personally accepting the responsibility of completing the construction of the present church and above all that of building the hospital. Both buildings were the essential basis for the Institution to work and still are to this day, when it continues to fulfil its founding mission despite numerous setbacks.