Juan Macias was thirty-four years old when he set out for the America's in 1619 with another businessman. After traveling through Colombia and Ecuador, he arrived in Lima, where he decided to join the Order of Preachers as a lay brother at the priory of Saint Mary Magdalene. For twenty-two years, he worked as a porter at the priory. Inspired by his friend Saint Martin de Porres, he began to help the poor, walking the streets of Lima on a donkey to collect bread for the poor.

The miracle that led to his canonization reflects his dedication to the poor. 1949. In 1991, after the end of the Spanish Civil War, poverty struck the country. In Olivenza, on the southern Portugal-Spain border, the cook at the parish soup kitchen ran out of food to distribute to the poor. He called Juan Macias, who was born in the same village as him, and because of his intercession, the rice multiplied without explanation.