Nicolas, Lope (1861‒1914)

Lope Nicolás was one of the first Adventist converts in Spain.

Early Life

Nicolás was born in Jimena, a town in the province of Jaén, in southern Spain. His last name was San Nicolás (“Saint Nicholas”), but he preferred the first part to be omitted.¹ Nicolás practiced the Baptist faith until 1905. In this year, he went to live in Barcelona, where he was introduced to the Adventist message the following year.

Colporteur and Bible Worker

When Nicolás was baptized, he left his job because he was not allowed to keep the Sabbath, and devoted himself to canvassing. He became one of the first Spanish Adventist colporteurs.² Nicolás carried out his canvassing work with the magazine The Signs of the Times (Las Señales de los Tiempos), brochures, and Bibles from Mexico. He shared the Adventist message with Pedro Sanz, who would later become a pastor, father, grandfather, and great-grandfather of pastors (the Sanz and the Martorell families).³

After a while, Nicolás trained for the ministry in Gland, Switzerland, and returned to Spain in 1910 to work as a Bible worker in the Murcia and Cartagena area for two years. Then he was transferred to Baeza, Andalusia, where he was very active in preaching the gospel. He moved to Cipriano Alhambra street no. 6. In 1914 he invited the president of the Mission, Pastor Walter Bond, to conduct a conference campaign in 1914, which had a sad and dramatic ending: Pastor Bond was poisoned and died in Nicolás’s home.⁴

After feeling ill for some time, Nicolás learned he had stomach cancer. He traveled to Barcelona for a surgery, but did not wake up from the anesthesia. Nicolás was buried in Barcelona.⁵

Legacy

Nicolás’s daughter María was also a Bible worker in Spain, and his son Carlos was a colporteur and later a pastor in Mexico.⁶

Sources

Guaita, Alberto. “Lope Nicolás.” Revista Adventista Española, September 1978.

Valls, Jonathan, ed. Compartiendo la esperanza, Cien años de adventismo del séptimo día en España. Madrid: Safeliz, 2003.

Notes

1. Jonathan Valls, ed., Compartiendo la esperanza, Cien años de adventismo del séptimo día en España (Madrid: Safeliz, 2003), 53.↩

2. Alberto Guaita, “Lope Nicolás,” Revista Adventista Española, September 1978, 24.↩

3. Valls, 53.↩

4. Ibid., 58.↩

5. Guaita, 24.↩

6. Valls, 53. This account stresses that even in the hospital before his surgery, he preached the gospel, distributed brochures, and bore witness to his faith.↩