Aloysius Ellacuría was born on 21 June 1905 at Yurre, in the Basque province of Biscay, and joined the Claretian Missionaries, the Missionary Sons of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. From the 1930s to the 1970s he worked chiefly in Los Angeles, as a rector, a superior and a spiritual director.
In his lifetime he was known as a miracle-worker: people told of healings, physical and spiritual, after his prayers. Those are the reports of the people who made them; the Church has examined none of them. He died in Los Angeles on 6 April 1981 and was buried at Mission San Gabriel, where his grave is still covered with flowers by those who ask his help.
In 2014 the postulator Andrea Ambrosi petitioned Archbishop Gomez to open the cause; it was opened in 2015, after the U.S. bishops' consultation that November, and the archdiocese's inquiry began in 2017. He is a Servant of God.