Corpus Christi (KIII News) — South Texas is full of legends and folklore, and one such story is still being told more than 100 years after a faith healer Don Pedrito Jaramillo passed away.
On Tuesday just outside of the small south Texas town of Falfurrias is a tiny building surrounded by a cemetery.
At cemetery there is a shrine where the body of on Jaramillo is entombed, it is also the very location wherein 1881 he settled in what was then the Los Olmos Ranch.
Jaramillo was born in, and while there he suffered an accident hurting his nose his grandaughter Delores Villarreal was able to tell his story.
"Ran to a nearby pool of water and stuck his nose into the mud." he stayed there for three days," Villarreal said. "The pain miraculously went away That night he heard a voice in a dream telling him to use the healing powers given to him by God to help others."
For the next 26 years that is what Jaramillo did.
Jaramillo faith healing prescriptions always included the first three things that came to his mind. Jaramillo never charged for his services even at a time in South Texas history when there were no doctors nearby.
"At first he would only treat neighbors, but soon he began visiting ranches and communities between the Nueces River and the Rio Grande," Villarreal said.
As word spread of Jaramillo healing abilities people started coming to him, hundreds a day at times.
On July 3, 1907, Jaramillo passed away. According to Villarreal, since then people still come and ask for healings.
"There are thousands of incredible testimonials. People who are drawn to the shrine, have faith share their stories in letters left behind," Villarreal said.
In 1971 the shrine received a historical marker.
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