It was the year 43 of the last century, when a persistent and serious drought devastated the lands of Granada. Ugíjar, at that time one of the important centres of the Alpujarra, was one of the affected towns. The young Fernando Rielo worked there, in time would be the founder of the ideate missionaries; he was the head of the Postal Service and had numerous hamlets under his charge. The neighbours, who treated him with affection and respect, were used to seeing him walk the meters that separated the hermitage of San Antón from the center of the town, a space that welcomed his meditations, his longings, the conversation he maintained with his heavenly Father, the passion of his life.
Likewise, the parish priest, with whom he had great confidence, knew Rielo’s religious spirit. That is why he welcomed his suggestion to attract the long-awaited rain. Fernando proposed to take the image of the Sacred Heart of Jesus out in procession for this purpose. And so it happened on one of those autumn days that seemed more like summer, with a splendid sun from which it was convenient to take shelter and before which it was difficult to believe what was going to happen immediately. Given such circumstances, the people undertook the procession, let’s say with incomplete faith if you can say that. In a word, they wanted, they hoped that the “miracle” of the rain would happen, and surely their prayers were aimed at obtaining it, but they did not risk believing in advance.
Fernando Rielo did believe it. That is why he went out with his umbrella; he was the only one who did so. He was well-known in the town, and the people were surprised by this gesture. They asked him, and he answered simply explaining why he was carrying the umbrella: If we are going to ask the Sacred Heart of Jesus for it to rain, then it will rain. Just like that. The image had not been on the street for ten minutes when the sky opened wide and a torrent of water fell on the neighbourhood, so that those carrying the Sacred Heart were forced to protect it in the first place they had at hand.
The episode, which did not go unnoticed, was narrated in the town for a while. The story ended by recalling that the only one who did not get wet that day was “the man with the umbrella” and with this affectionate nickname some mentioned the Founder of the Idente missionaries.
The event had such an impact that Don Francisco Puertas, who was the parish priest of the church of San Agustín in Granada, was told about it by his spiritual director to give him an example of what faith is, an example he had not forgotten. He had it so ingrained in him that one day he transmitted it to the canon of the cathedral of Granada, Don Rafael Pérez Bujaldón. The same thing happened to him, since in 2007, being already very old, he left written and signed this testimony that authenticates the veracity of what was stated and the scope of the external sign of faith of Fernando Rielo, whose centenary of birth was celebrated in 2023.
