I am writing to share a testimony of a favor that I attribute to the intercession of Pedro Ballester, and one I feel particularly compelled to write, as I promised him I would do so if he granted me the favor.
I am from Guatemala, and I have been admitted as an international student to the University of Navarre, Pamplona, Spain. Here is how it happened:
The academic year in Guatemala runs from January to October,  and so I graduated from high school in October. This created a gap with the Spanish university calendar, which begins in September. I applied to several universities, all of which offered me a January start. However, the University of Navarre, my first choice, only admits students in September. This put me in a very difficult position: I had to turn down all other offers and bank everything on Navarre, knowing that if I was not admitted, I would have no real backup plan. And I say everything, because getting into the university was not enough. I also needed a scholarship, as without one it would not have been possible for me to afford to study in Spain, coming from Guatemala. It was a very risky move in every sense.
I had my entrance exam on December 13th and was expecting a response on January 21st. By that date, all the universities with a January start would have already begun their academic year, so there was no turning back. During that waiting period, I prayed a great deal and entrusted the matter especially to Saint Josemaría and to Pedro Ballester. My family and friends also commended it to Pedro in a particular way.
There is one detail I cannot leave out: On January 20th  (one day before receiving Navarre's response) I received a relic of Pedro Ballester, a small piece of one of his hats, sent by a priest who asked me to entrust the matter especially to him. When he first told me he was going to send it, I thought he was joking. However, a day before receiving an answer I was receiving the relic.
The following day, January 21st, I received the response: I had been admitted to the University of Navarre and was granted the scholarship. I am deeply grateful for the intercession of Pedro Ballester.
But the story does not end there. When my family and I ran the numbers, the scholarship, while good, was fairly tight for covering all the costs of studying in Pamplona. So I submitted a formal request asking for additional aid, and once again I entrusted the matter to Pedro with great confidence.
What happened next struck me as equally remarkable. I had misplaced the relic or rather, I couldn't remember where I had left it. One night I found it again. The day after finding it, I received a response to my application (I had no idea I would receive the response that day): not only did they confirm an additional form of financial aid that I didn't even know existed, but it turned out to be a very significant one, making it much more feasible and comfortable to be able to study in Pamplona.
I am enormously grateful for the intercession of Pedro Ballester and I hope this testimony may be of use to his cause.
JLS (Pamplona, Spain)
9 March 2026

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