The Spanish historian Gabino Fernández died suddenly on 5 December at the age of 78.

Fernández was born in 1944 in Villanueva de los Infantes, in the Ciudad Real region. He was married to Isabel Morales, and had three children and six grandchildren.

He was well known in the evangelical sphere for his tireless work in spreading the gospel and recovering the Protestant historical memory, through conferences, books and media appearances.

His first contact with the gospel was when he was 16 and read a pamphlet titled The ten commandments. Immediately afterwards, he began to attend the evangelical church in Valdepeñas, where he converted to Christ shortly afterwards. He was baptised at 17.

At 18 he felt the call to Christian ministry and decided to study at the theological seminary, abandoning his job as a bricklayer to the initial displeasure of his parents.

In 1965, he graduated from the Biblical Institute of Madrid and continued his studies at the Higher Centre of Theology (CEIBI), where he obtained a Bachelor's Degree in Biblical sciences and in theology, specialising in Church History.

Evangelical pastor, ordained in 1969, he ministered in the evangelical churches of Valdepeñas, Santa Cruz de Mudela and Seville.

For some years, he was coordinator of Agape, the Spanish branch of Campus Crusade for Christ; and of the Spanish Bible Society for Andalusia, Murcia, Extremadura and the Canary Islands. He also ledthe Centre for Reformation Studies (CER), a non-profit cultural association.

A reference in the study of Spanish evangelical history

Gabino Fernández was professor of History of Spanish Protestantism at the Spanish Theological Institute and Seminary (IBSTE) until 2006. Afterwards, he taught the same subject at the CEIBI and History of Christianity for the Centre for Higher Evangelical Religious Education (CSEE).

He travelled all over Spain and abroad, giving lectures and courses on the Bible, Protestant literature and the Inquisition at Protestant congresses and university forums.

He also designed and guided several literary-historical-religious tours and cultural experiences throughout Spain, as well as interactive and travelling exhibitions on Spanish Protestantism and the Bible.

Service-minded and passionate about spreading the history of Protestantism and the evangelical churches in Spain, part of his research has appeared in books, articles and recordings, as well as in radio, television and Internet programs in which he actively and selflessly collaborated.

Internationally published work

Since 1964, he wrote articles about Spanish Protestants in religious and secular publications in Spain, the United States and the Netherlands. In Spanish, Catalan, English and Dutch.

His books, in which he shared his concerns about history, bibliography, poetry, the Bible and missions, have been published in Spain, Guatemala, Argentina, England and the United States, as well as in digital format.

He also actively collaborated for years with Actualidad Evangélica, the news website of the Federation of Evangelical Religious Entities of Spain (FEREDE).