Nicolás Factor was born in Valencia in Spain on 29 June 1520 as one of five children to a poor tailor.
In his childhood he fasted three times a week and donated all of his untouched food to the poor and also tended to the ill, including lepers. His Moorish maid was so affected by this love that she learnt about the faith and converted to Roman Catholicism.
His father wanted him to follow his career as a tailor but Nicolas wanted to become a priest and a religious.
He entered the Order of Friars Minor on 30 November 1537 and was sometime later ordained as a priest, where he developed his talents as a painter via a range of devotional images.
Although Nicolas wanted be sent to missionary lands, he was instead sent to preach across his own region and became much sought-after, his homilies teaching and converting many. He was known for undergoing rather severe self-mortifications before he gave each sermon.
Go here to read the rest.
