Teenager makes world's tallest sculpture of iconic Venezuelan doctor who will be canonized

(OSV News) -- With plans underway for the canonization of Blessed José Gregorio Hernández Oct. 19, as announced by the Vatican, a 16-year-old artist has created the world's tallest sculpture of the future saint.

Blessed José Gregorio is a 19th-century medical doctor who modernized medicine in Venezuela and was known for his fervent faith and willingness to serve the poor. He is the most revered historical figure among Catholics in Venezuela.

On May 24, a teenager in charge of the sculpture project, Josué Benjamín Figueroa, revealed the statue to the world.

Like all of Josué Benjamín's works, the statue of Venezuela's beloved medic was made with polymer clay. After it was concluded -- and the whole process took two months -- it was taken to the city of Tocuyito, located in Carabobo state.

The inauguration of the sculpture occurred weeks before the June 13 ordinary public consistory, in which the pope approved the new canonization date for Blesseds Carlo Acutis and Pier Giorgio Frassati -- who will be canonized together Sept. 7, the Vatican announced. During the same consistory, Pope Leo also confirmed that seven other blesseds -- including Blessed José Gregorio -- will be canonized Oct. 19, on World Mission Sunday.

The group includes men and women from five countries, among them martyrs, founders of religious congregations and laypeople recognized for their heroic virtue and service.

Elena Torres de Figueroa, Josué Benjamin's mother, told OSV News that "a private company got in touch with us and asked us to create the sculpture. For us, that's a very important character in Venezuelan culture, so it looked like a great idea to do so."

Dr. José Gregorio, in their opinion, is somebody who inspires them to look for the love of God.

"We're just instruments of God. He is the one who allows us to be tools for his will to be fulfilled," Josué Benjamín told OSV News.

He said the local residents in Tocuyito are happy to have the sculpture in the city.

"And I am happy to notice how the people rejoice to see that work," he said.

Josué Benjamín began working on sculptures when he was only 4 years old. He used play dough to make figures of Nintendo's Mario, of Batman and other superheroes, and of the Portuguese soccer player Cristiano Ronaldo.

He has always shown his work on social media, something that led him to draw nowadays at least 1.5 million followers on Instagram. Such a success led the local branch of Nickelodeon to invite him to have his own show, named El Taller de Josué (Josué's Workshop).

In 2024, Josué Benjamín built a 20-feet-tall sculpture of St. Augustine in the city of Guacara, in Carabobo province. The city's patron saint is St. Augustine. The young artist claimed that it was the largest sculpture in the world produced by a teenager.

The choice to make a sculpture of Blessed José Gregório is only natural. After his death in 1919, Venezuelans began to become devoted to him. He became a folk saint, present in all altars in the country -- with a comparable following among Colombians and Ecuadorians.

Born in 1864, Blessed José Gregório was able to combine his profound faith with his scientific career. As a doctor, he would take special care of the poorest, failing to charge them for appointments and giving them money for the medicines. He would also visit patients who lived in distant locations and were impeded by their disease to get to his office.

As a scholar, Blessed José Gregório founded the first histology course of Venezuela and brought several important devices from Paris -- including Venezuela's very first microscope.

In 1919, he died after being hit by a car in Caracas as he was going to visit a patient.

The devotion to Blessed José Gregorio began just after his death. In only a couple of decades, it was already normal to have at least one boy in each family who had been named José Gregorio. His fame was especially strong among Andean communities.