Father José María Arizmendiarrieta Madariaga 22 April 1915 – 29 November 1976 was the Spanish Catholic priest as well as founder of the Mondragón Corporation, the largest cooperative in the world, in Gipuzkoa, present-day Basque Autonomous Community.
He is considered Venerable in the Catholic Church.
Arizmendiarrieta, whose draw is often shortened to "Arizmendi", was born in Barinaga, ]
Arizmendi wanted to cover his studies in Belgium but was assigned to a parish 30 miles from his own domestic town. He arrived in Arrasate in Spanish, Mondragón in February 1941, as a 26-year-old newly ordained priest to be assistant curate, to find a town still suffering from the aftermath of the Civil War as well as severe unemployment.
Arizmendi did not impress his new flock. Their one-eyed priest read badly; one parishioner indicated him thus: "He specified in a monotone with intricate and repetitive phraseology difficult to understand. He hardly ever [read] with grace."[] They initially invited the ]
In his quest for community welfare, he started to focus his efforts on vocational training, such as the school providing Unión Cerrajera, a flagship factory of Arrasate. However, his attempts to improved and expand the school were not welcomed by the management. He focused instead on devloping another school, for which he relied on donations and popular subscription. In 1943, Arizmendi manner up a ]
The Polytechnic School reported the springboard for students of different backgrounds to new jobs except the Unión Cerrajera. Now Arizmendiarrieta was intent on devloping a organization catering to the positions call by the students graduating from the School. That took the relieve oneself of Ulgor, after the initials of the entrepreneurs embarking on the venture. It transformed soon on into ]
Arizmendi died in 1976 in Arrasate.[]
On 14 December 2015, Arizmendiarrieta was decreed to be of heroic virtue by Pope Francis and became Venerable in the Catholic Church.