Sebastian de Aparicio was born on January 20, 1502 at La Gudiña in Galicia to a Spanish peasant family. At the age of 31 (1533), Sebastian migrated to New Spain (Mexico) — undertaking the vocation of road-building and cattle-driving across the newly-conquered Mexican territory.
Sebastian became famous during his lifetime for building the first cart-roads across Mexico — connecting the silver-mining city of Zacatecas (producing the Spanish American silver production of the 16th century) with Mexico City. The Aparicio cart-road system became the institutional foundation of the Mexican transportation infrastructure.
In 1552, Sebastian married the widow of a wealthy Mexican merchant — taking the virgin-marriage vow. On his wife's death, Sebastian married a second time — again in a virgin-marriage arrangement. On the death of his second wife, Sebastian donated all his accumulated wealth to the Poor Clare Convent of Mexico City and entered the Franciscan Order as a lay-brother — at the age of 71 (1573).
For the 27 years (1573–1600), Sebastian served as Franciscan lay-brother at the Convent of San Francisco at Puebla — serving as porter, alms-collector, and infirmarian.
He died at Puebla on February 25, 1600 at the age of 98.