A young man from Manchester, England, who \u201ccommitted himself totally to God\u201d could one day be included among the ranks of Sts. Carlo Acutis and Pier Giorgio Frassati as calls continue for him to be named a saint.<\/p>\n
Pedro Ballester died on Jan. 13, 2018, at the age of 21 of bone cancer after a life of prayer, sacrifice, and virtue. Vatican representatives are now in the process of interviewing his family and friends to gauge whether a cause should be formally opened for the former university student.<\/p>\n Father Joseph Evans, chaplain of Greygarth Hall, Manchester, who accompanied Ballester during the last year of his life, told EWTN News: \u201cPeople like Pedro and Carlo Acutis, they didn\u2019t keep their options open. They committed themselves totally to God. They found happiness in deep self-giving and deep suffering.\u201d <\/p>\n Carlo Acutis, a 15-year-old Italian, died in 2006 and was canonized a saint in 2025.<\/p>\n Evans told EWTN News that \u201cyoung people are attracted to self-giving and self-sacrifice and practice because of our soft, consumerist world.\u201d<\/p>\n Ballester was born into a Catholic family and his Spanish parents are married members of Opus Dei, a personal prelature of the Catholic Church founded in Spain by St. Josemar\u00eda Escriv\u00e1 in 1928. Ballester himself joined Opus Dei in 2013 as a \u201cnumerary\u201d member \u2014 meaning he made a commitment to celibacy for life and living out the charism of Opus Dei in the world. <\/p>\n After winning a place at Imperial College in London to study chemical engineering, Ballester experienced intense back pain during his first semester, after which he was diagnosed with advanced cancer of the pelvis.<\/p>\n During his illness, he would often go to Christie\u2019s Hospital in Manchester for cancer treatment where his holiness and kindness were noted by many. He befriended his fellow patients and the nurses, showing a deep interest in their lives outside the hospital. <\/p>\n \u201cHe made really good friends with them,\u201d Evans told EWTN News. \u201cHe was genuinely interested in you. He really inspired people in a very, very natural way. He got through to people and spoke to them about God.\u201d <\/p>\n On one occasion, Ballester wrote a card to Pope Francis, signed by his fellow cancer patients, and delivered it in person to the pontiff in Rome in November 2015. His father, also named Pedro, recounted how his son told Pope Francis: \u201cI just wanted to let you know that I got cancer, and I offer all the sufferings for you and for the Church.”<\/p>\n From that point on, the young man\u2019s suffering worsened and he regularly experienced acute pain leading up to his death. <\/p>\n Paying tribute to the way Ballester responded to his disease, Evans said: \u201cHe was uniting himself to the suffering of Christ. The pain he was going through was a much bigger share in the passion of Christ, offering that suffering to Christ for souls, for salvation. Above all, he would say the best form of prayer was offering up our suffering.\u201d<\/p>\n Opus Dei, which is promoting Ballester\u2019s cause for sainthood, is hoping the impressive young adult will follow in the footsteps of Carlo Acutis and Pier Georgio Frassati, who was famous for serving the poor in Milan. <\/p>\n Speaking to EWTN News about the impact of such young people, Jack Valero from Opus Dei said: \u201cThere seems to be a whole collection of people, [a] new generation of Catholics who are going to lead the way. God is saying that, now in the 21st century, \u2018I\u2019m going to give you a whole load of people that are going to be models for the young.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n He added: \u201c[Pedro] could be somebody who can teach us to be happy with whatever our circumstances are, and that to be close to God is to be happy.\u201d<\/p>\n Valero also described Ballester as a \u201cspecial\u201d person who was \u201ca really friendly guy throughout his life, and he continued to be a very friendly guy in his sickness.\u201d <\/p>\nA gift for friendship and commitment to God <\/h2>\n