Francisco Xavier Ricardo Vilá y Mateu, OFMCap (9 May 1851 – 1 January 1913) was a Spanish Capuchin friar and bishop of the Roman Catholic Church. He arrived as Guam's first bishop in 1911, and serving as apostolic vicar for less than a year, dying on 1 January 1913.
Biography.
Ricardo Vilá y Mateu was born on 9 May 1851 in the small town of Arenys de Mar, Province of Barcelona in Catalonia, Spain. In his late teens, he decided to become a Capuchin friar, but the turbulent political situation caused him to pursue his vocation elsewhere. He moved to Guatemala in 1869 and joined a convent there, taking the religious name "Francisco Javier", in honor of Francis Xavier, the Spanish missionary. Vilá studied theology in Toulouse, France, and was ordained a priest on 24 August 1875 in Ecuador.
Vilá's first was as Master of novices in Spain. He later served as Provincial Definitor and Provincial superior of the Aragon Province from 1889–1895, and of the Catalonia Province from 1900–1906.
On 25 August 1911, Pope Pius X appointed Vilá the first Apostolic Vicar of the Apostolic Vicariate of Agaña in Guam. He was also appointed Titular bishop of Adraa. His consecration took place on 1 October 1911, with Bishop Juan José Laguarda y Fenollera, Bishop of Barcelona, as the Principal Consecrator. Principal Co-Consecrators were Bishop Francisco de Pol y Baralt, Bishop of Gerona, and Bishop Luis José Amigó y Ferrer, O.F.M.Cap., Titular Bishop of Thagaste.
Prior to Vilá's appointment, the highest church official in Guam had been one of the priests running the island's mission, usually a Jesuit, Augustinian Recollect, or diocesan priest from the Archdiocese of Cebu in the Philippines. In the years directly preceding his episcopate, German Capuchins had been tasked to take over the mission, and were set to arrive in 1911. However, when social and political opposition prevented them from doing so, the Holy See assigned Spanish Capuchins instead. It was also decided that the growth of Catholicism in Guam warranted formal leadership and hence Vilá's appointment as the first Vicar General.
Vilá's term was cut short by his sudden death on 1 January 1913 in Hagåtña, the village that held the cathedral. He was buried the next day, making him the first Catholic bishop interred on Guam.
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