Patricio Alfredo Sánchez Molinari was born in Cuenca on November 6, 1973. He entered the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer, the religious order founded by Saint Alphonsus Liguori in 1732, and made his profession on August 15, 2000, the feast of the ᴀssumption. He was ordained a priest on October 15, 2005. Over the next twenty-one years he exercised his ministry in several parts of Ecuador: first in Loja in the south, where he worked with youth groups and family catechesis; then in Durán, where he supported food programs and vocational workshops for young people at risk; later as a pioneer of the Redemptorist presence in Vinces, serving as parish priest of San Lorenzo and traveling to remote rural communities; then nine years in Manta; and finally about four years as pastor of Nuestra Señora del Perpetuo Socorro in the south of Guayaquil.

Those who knew him consistently described a calm, patient, and approachable priest. He was remembered as close to the young, attentive to the sick, and supportive of educational initiatives. Within the Redemptorist charism he placed particular emphasis on Eucharistic adoration, a practice strongly ᴀssociated with Saint Alphonsus. He belonged to the Andean-Caribbean Province of the congregation. At the time of his death he was fifty-two years old. The fatal accident occurred on the night of October 17, 2026, inside the church he served, during the celebration of Mᴀss. A large wooden crucifix mounted behind the altar detached and fell on him. The Mᴀss was being livestreamed. He died shortly afterward.

The Archdiocese of Guayaquil announced the death that same evening. The notice recalled that he had been parish priest of Perpetuo Socorro in the Central Vicariate and stated that he had departed to the Father’s house. It offered condolences to his family, his confreres, and his friends. Only the day before, the archdiocese had published a note marking another year of his priesthood. After the death, fellow Redemptorists spoke of a man who died while doing what he loved—the celebration of the Eucharist. One confrere observed that the crucifix itself was almost undamaged except for part of the corpus, and that the manner of his pᴀssing seemed to join his own death with the Lord’s. The wake and funeral took place in Cuenca, his native city.

Family members there asked for an investigation into the cause of the cross’s fall. National police had already classified the death as accidental pending further inquiry. In the week that followed, memorial services were held both in Guayaquil and in Cuenca. The Redemptorist community began a novena for the repose of his soul. His trajectory—from the southern highlands to the coastal missions and finally to a large urban parish—illustrates the ordinary work of a missionary priest in Ecuador: preaching, accompanying families, supporting the vulnerable, and keeping the daily rhythm of the sacraments. That work ended abruptly on the evening of October 17 when the cross fell.