St. Jude Catholic Church

Rev. Miguel Velez

E-mail:

frmiguel@stjudechattanooga.org

Father Miguel grew up in Pereria, Colombia, South America. He is the oldest of two children; his younger sister graduated from college in Colombia in 2009 with a teaching degree. Sadly, his father died when Fr. Miguel was very young; his mother lives in Pereria. Fr. Miguel began his formation for the priesthood in 1988, at the age of 17, in a seminary in Colombia; he spent six years studying very hard.

Now the story switches to the USA, where then-Bishop (now Archbishop) Kurtz talked to Fr. Antonio Giraldo, associate pastor of St. Therese of Lisieux in Cleveland, Tennessee, regarding the recruitment of other priests from Colombia to be diocesan priests for the Diocese of Knoxville. Father Giraldo contacted his uncle, a teacher at a seminary in Colombia.

Fr. Miguel Velez's home: Pereria, Colombia.
Metropolitan population about 1 million.
Fr. Miguel is not from a small town!

The uncle approached Fr. Miguel, and he rose to the challenge. Eight months later on September 8, 2004, he arrived in the United States. The first year he was here, he lived on Signal Mountain; initially with the Kedrowski family, then in the rectory at St. Augustine with Fr. Peter Iorio. During this time, Fr. Miguel took English language classes at UTC.

Upon completion of the language classes, Fr. Miguel was sent to the Mundelein Seminary in Chicago, Illinois, (St. Mary of the Lake) for three years of studies. Fr. Miguel was ordained Deacon on December 21, 2007, at St. Augustine. On June 7, 2008, he was ordained Priest in his native country.

The first Mass he celebrated at St. Jude was the 7:00 pm Mass on Wednesday, August 13, 2007.