In the forgotten Peruvian town of Zaña, “gateway to heaven,” is the school founded by Bishop Prevost.

The town of Zaña, called “gateway to heaven” by its inhabitants, was founded in 1563 by the Spanish. It is 47 km from the city of Chiclayo, and, like the entire province of the same name, has a bishop appointed on November 3, 2015, by Pope Francis: Bishop Robert Francis Prevost, of the Augustinian Order, now Pope Leo XIV.

Zaña is a place in Peru forgotten by the world, although somewhat less so by history, since it was there that the Bishop of Lima, Saint Toribio de Mogrovejo, died on one of his many trips to evangelize the indigenous people. He also translated two catechisms into Quechua and Aymara.

For anyone who has doubts about how small and poor Zaña is, it’s worthwhile to go to Google Maps and see it for yourself.

Every September, in Zaña, in honor of Saint Nicholas of Tolentino, patron saint of bakers, Bishop Prevost distributed two enormous baskets of bread. In fact, the Augustinians have a special ritual to bless them, similar to the blessing of the palms.

The “gringo” bishop, as the local people called him, also visited them on the feast day of Saint Toribio de Mogrovejo, today the patron saint of the Latin American episcopate, as the small mausoleum in his honor.

On those occasions, he celebrated Mass, administered the sacraments, and ate lunch with the residents.

In 2017, during one of his trips to Zaña, when he saw that the children had to travel to other towns to study, he decided it was necessary to open a school, which was named in honor of the Italian Augustinian Saint Nicholas of Tolentino.

Today, this school, which gradually developed, has about 300 students in preschool, primary, and secondary school. At the time, Bishop Robert Prevost instructed them that any profits should always be invested so that the school could continue to grow and thus benefit the students in an environment of study and tranquility.

Thus, while traveling to the United States to realize the American dream is among the dreams of many Latin Americans, from Chicago, the then-Augustinian Father Prevost was sent to Chiclayo—as is the case with so many other missionaries who dedicate their lives to undiscovered places that don’t make the news—without ever thinking that he would be elected Successor of Peter.