Salvatore del Cuore Immacolato di Maria

Salvador Riviera Garcia was born in Salvatierra, Guanajuato (Mexico) on June 27, 1934.

Like everyone else, he was a lively and playful child, but also very intelligent and willing to help. As a boy, he began to show signs of his missionary vocation, because for 12 years he helped with the catechism. At the age of 14 he entered the Discalced Carmelites in Toluca, Mexico State, then made his novitiate in Querétaro.

He travelled to Washington, D.C., for a year. He was ordained on June 29, 1960. In 1962-1963 he studied in Rome; in 1965 he went to the mission of Tamazula, Durango, and then to Tayoltita, a mining town where his life was radically changed.

Due to an accident that occurred on May 15, 1969, in Tayoltita, Durango, he was left a quadriplegic. This incident rather than being an obstacle, became a new opportunity that God gave him to move forward with his apostolate and talk about the teachings of our Catholic faith.

In June 1971 he was transferred to Mexico City. He attended the Mexican Institute of Rehabilitation (IMR) for physical rehabilitation. During his time at IMR, he exchanged experiences with other people with disabilities and gave spiritual support.

In June 1972, a Jesuit priest named Alfredo Martín Gallegos, of the Christian Fraternity of the Sick, a group born in 1942 in France, arrived in Mexico City and invited Father Chavita to join the movement. From that meeting was born the great work of Father Chavita, the Fraternity of the Sick and those with mobility difficulties, and groups began to be formed in various cities and states of Mexico. Father Chavita from 1976 continued his incessant activity as a consultant for the Fraternity, without ever neglecting his duties as a priest and Carmelite friar.

He died on December 21, 1997.

The Diocesan Inquiry into his «Life, Virtue and Reputation for Holiness» was opened on March 19, 2007 at the Archdiocese of Guadalajara.