Wenceslao Pedernera was born on 28 September 1936 in Los Jagüeles, near La Calera. On March 24, 1962, he married Martha Ramona Cornejo, a farmer like him, but, unlike him, a very believer: they got married in church. A popular mission leads him to rediscover the faith, but it is the influence of Monsignor Enrique Angelelli, bishop of La Rioja, that leads him to commit himself even more alongside his fellow farmers.
In 1973 he moved to La Rioja with his wife and three daughters: he started an agricultural cooperative, where work was accompanied by prayer and reading the Gospel. Wencesalo is also the national director of the Rural Movement of AC Argentina,
On July 25, 1976, four hooded men knocked on his door and shot him dead. His wife, who assisted, transported him to the hospital in Chilechito, where Wenceslao died forgiving his attackers. Before him, Father Carlos de Dios Murias, of the Conventual Friars Minor, and Father Gabriel Longueville, a "fidei donum" priest, had been murdered, kidnapped by the Federal Police on 18 July 1976. Finally, on 4 August, in a simulated car accident, he found the death also monsignor Angelelli. The case of Father Carlos, Father Gabriel and Wenceslao initially took place in the diocese of La Rioja from 31 May 2011 to 15 May 2015. The case of Monsignor Angelelli was added to it, whose diocesan investigation took place instead from 13 October 2015 to September 15, 2016, again in La Rioja.
On May 8, 2018, Pope Francis authorized the promulgation of the decree by which Wenceslaus and his companions were officially declared martyrs, even though, informally, they were already known as the “martyrs of La Rioja”. Wenceslao's mortal remains are buried in the cemetery of Sañogasta, but their transfer to the parish church of the same town is expected. He was proclaimed blessed in La Rioja on 27 April 2019. He was defined as the patron saint of rural families.
«Let's not say that today it is more difficult;
it's different. Let's learn rather
by the saints who have gone before us
and they faced the difficulties
characteristic of their era".