RIP: 19/10/2024 - La Estrella-Antioquia
Fr. Guillermo Mesa Velásquezwas born on 19 June 1933 in Medellín, department of Antioquia. He had twelve siblings, out of whom two became Salvatorian Sisters and one brother. He attended primary school at the Céspedes School in Medellín. He began his high school studies at the Divine Saviour Seminary in La Estrella in 1948. After having finished his novitiate, he professed his first temporary vows as a Salvatorian in the Colombian Province on 2 February 1957. He began studying philosophy at the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana in Bogotá in 1958. He did a year of science at the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, specialising in literature and pedagogy. In September 1962 he left for the Eternal City to continue his theology studies at the Pontifical Gregorian University. He was ordained priest on 26 March 1966 in the Basilica of St. John Lateran in Rome. A few months later, in September 1966 he went back to his home country, Colombia. In general, Fr. Guillermo has served the province as a teacher in La Estrella, sub-prefect, missionary par excellence, chaplain, local treasurer, formator, provincial councillor, vocations promoter, and as a parish priest. He founded the social movement “Fundación Sembradores de Paz (FUSEMPAZ)”, a foundation that even today seeks for the good of many marginalised people in the south of the city of Cali. For this magnificent work he has received several awards and tributes. From January 2022 on, he lived at the Maurino Rast SDS community of La Estrella-Antioquia, where he died on 19 October 2024. He was 91 years old and had been a Salvatorian for 67 years.
