NEW YORK, Sept. 29 /PRNewswire/ -- Padre Felix Varela, whose 30 years of humanitarian works in the U.S. earned him high esteem here and abroad, will be honored in New York City this week with the dedication of a new 32-cent commemorative stamp.
The ceremony will be held at the Church of the Transfiguration, 29 Mott St. in lower Manhattan at 2:30 PM on Thursday, October 2. Padre Varela was the founder of the Church of the Transfiguration in the 1830s. The public is invited to attend the ceremony.
The Padre Felix Varela stamp had its first day of issue on September 15 in Miami, Florida, and other stamp dedications are being held throughout the country, including in Puerto Rico and Los Angeles, as well as New York. The Padre Felix Varela stamp is part of the celebration of National Hispanic Heritage Month.
His Eminence John Cardinal O'Connor and Mayor of New York Rudolph Giuliani will join The Honorable Tirso del Junco, MD, Chairman of the United States Postal Service's Board of Governors in the stamp dedication.
"Padre Varela dedicated his life to the service of others, especially young people, the sick and the poor," said Dr. del Junco. "He was considered a great defender of liberty, but above all, an exemplary priest, who led his ministry in New York City for more than 20 years."
In the early 1820s, Varela concentrated his efforts on helping poor minorities living in New York City, and founded nurseries and orphanages for the children of poor widows. He organized the New York Catholic Temperance Association, and lived in hospitals while caring for cholera victims during an epidemic in 1832. As a result of his abilities and dedication, Varela was named Vicar General of the New York diocese.
Varela also founded the first Spanish newspaper in the U.S., publishing articles about human rights, as well as essays on religious tolerance, cooperation between English and Spanish speaking communities, and the importance of education. Varela was born in 1788 in Havana, Cuba, where he quickly distinguished himself as a great educator. During his professional career, Varela introduced numerous innovations in teaching and defending the principle -- then considered strange -- of giving women the same education as men.
Varela spent his last years in the city of St. Augustine, Fla., and died in 1853, but his legacy endures, as two foundations named in his honor carry out his work in Miami and New York.
SOURCE United States Postal Service
09/29/97 15:57 EDT http://www.prnewswire.com