Father Luis de Lezama died today, January 11, at 5:00 p.m., after receiving the Holy Sacraments, at the Cl\u00ednica Universidad de Navarra (Madrid). The funeral chapel will be set up at 10:00 a.m. on Monday, January 13, in the Parish of Santa Mar\u00eda la Blanca.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lezama leaves a legacy of faith, solidarity and social entrepreneurship. Born in Amurrio (\u00c1lava) in 1936, this priest marked the lives of generations not only from the altar, but also as a visionary who united evangelization with concrete initiatives to dignify the most vulnerable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ordained a priest in 1962, Father Lezama began his ministry in humble contexts, working with young people and families facing economic and social difficulties. However, it was in the 1970s that his work took on a distinctive character. In 1974, in the neighborhood of Vallecas, he founded La Taberna del Alabardero<\/em>a restaurant that became much more than a gastronomic space. There he gave employment and training to at-risk youth, many of them homeless, providing an opportunity to transform their lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This initiative, which combined hospitality training with human and spiritual formation, was the beginning of an innovative model that Lezama replicated in other parts of Spain and America. His work grew and gave rise to the Lezama Group, a hospitality business group comprising 22 restaurants located in cities such as Madrid, Marbella, Washington, Seattle and Seville. To give legal support to this work of training and social promotion, he created the Iruaritz Lezama Foundation, thus consolidating a work that impacted the lives of thousands of people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Throughout his life, Father Luis de Lezama received numerous recognitions, the Government of Spain awarded him the Encomienda de la Orden de Isabel la Cat\u00f3lica and the Encomienda de la Orden Civil de Alfonso X el Sabio, while in France he was named Knight of Honor of the Order of Civil Merit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Lezama understood his work as a way of living the Gospel concretely. For him, giving employment and education to young people was not only an act of charity, but a means of restoring their dignity. His proposal was to evangelize through a job well done. This integrative approach, in which faith and social action went hand in hand, made him a point of reference both inside and outside the Church.<\/p>\n\n\n\nA social commitment born of the Gospel<\/h2>\n\n\n\n