He was born in Aytona on a cold winter day of 29th December 1811. Welcome to the seventh child of the Palau-Quer family! He was baptized the on same day for his parents were devout Catholics. Francisco increased the vitality of the family. He loved his brothers and sistersso much. He was a diligent student; played with the children of the village; sang with his father in the church choir. The worst were those disastrous years of French occupation. There was lack of food and hope because the best were taken away by the soldiers; hate and the desire for revenge against them prevailed.
The child grew in years. His teacher advised the family to care for his formation because he was very capable. He moved with his sister Rosa to Butsènit. A time of meaningful options for Francisco was this: it widened his culture and he tried the seminary if he was meant for the priesthood. Finally, he made the right decision: The Teresian Carmel. He began his journey as a Carmelite in Barcelona and in the convent of Las Ramblas. He was noted for his interest and coherence. The Revolution (1835) expelled him out of his convent, to which would no longer return. Before he was imprisoned, he showed gestures of sensitivity and courage to the most destitute, even to the point of risking his own life – a perfect symbiosis of faith and boldness.
He began his life of exclaustration among his people: he lived with his family, assisted the pastor, and heard countless secrets of his acquaintances. He guided them and prayed intensely for everyone and for everything. The cave of Aytona witnessed his deep communion with the God of his existence. His priesthood (1836) and popular missions, the length and width of Catalonia, expanded and qualified his inner life.
In 1840 the socio-political ambience was anticlerical, going as far as persecution. Therefore, at the age of 29, Palau was exiled to France. He remained there for 11 years. He soon fled the concentration camp where political intrigues were plotted. He looked for places where he could live to the best of himself (Galamus, S Pierre de Livron, Cantayrac). He followed the events of his country; he was in solidarity with the projects of the Pope; he wrote and he prayed. His fame as an exemplary priest spread everywhere and people came to present him their troubles. It did not take long when groups of men and women added up, who wanted to live the Gospel like him.
Jealousies, rivalries and other bad weeds led to a return to his country. He stayed in Barcelona. The seminarians, the slums and the School of Virtue accounted for the best of his attention and energies during these years. The School of Virtue was a sketch of his intuition about the mystery of the Church. This remained only as a project. The libel again baited him and confined him to Ibiza: a prison, par excellence, of the State. The year was 1854 and he was 43 years old.
He remained there for six long years devoting himself to prayer, to preaching, to spreading his spiritual experience, to assisting those who needed his advice. He took care of the Marian shrine which he built in Es Cubells. Although he requested for his freedom from the Queen herself, he contemplated at his unjust situation from the positive side. Therefore he sought and dreamed. Palau was a tough seeker and a dreamer. Yes, he looked at the core of his vocation, at its most authentic, and aspired to live and to die for that discovery. He sensed it as a concretion of God himself.
Vedra, the place of deep contemplation
1860 marked the halfway point of his vocational journey. Nothing would be as before. He discovered in the Cathedral of Menorca that the focus of his call was the God of the people and the people of God. Inseparable: the mystery of the Church. And with this discovery, rooted in the heart, his dream crystallized into a reality. He dreamed to spread this great mystery and to serve it in an unconditional and lasting way. This he aspired with some of his daughters, who would extend throughout the history this treasure he discovered and would graft in different cultures as a charism and be enriched by them as a legacy and experience. And it was thus illuminated – M issionary Carmel picked up the torch as a gift from God. It is being enriched with many nuances throughout its journey.
Palau was dedicated to spreading the Word of God from the pulpit, through the means of communications, his writings, popular missions etc; to attend to the impoverished and to accompany his daughters at the beginning of their journey as a family. He heard the final call to meet his Beloved, which he welcomed with joy. He lived for the Church and was ready to die for her. Yet another scenario was always hoped for at the last moments of his life; hence, a complaint escaped him: “God, you have changed my luck.” It happened in Tarragona, at 61 years of his life, on 20th March 1872.
