Pedro Poveda (1874-1936), Spanish priest and educationalist, founder of the Teresian Association, was born in Linares in the Andalusian province of Jaén, southern Spain. He began his educational work in 1902 in Guadix, near Granada, where he opened schools for cave-dwellers. In 1906 he was appointed a Canon of the Basilica of Covadonga in Asturias, in the north. There, an intense period of quiet prayer, reading, study of modern educational trends and writing followed. After an intensely active life of commitment to his educational and apostolic calling, Pedro Poveda was taken prisoner at his Madrid home on 27 July 1936, soon after the outbreak of civil war. On the following morning he was found in the Este cemetery in Madrid; he had been shot dead. He was beatified in Rome on 10 October 1993 and canonised in Madrid on 4 May 2003 by Pope John Paul II. The Teresian Association now continues its founder’s work in 30 countries in Europe, the Americas, Asia and Africa.