Salvado was born at Tui, Galicia, Spain, and at the age of 15 entered the Benedictine Abbey of San Martin at Compostela. He was clothed in thehabit in 1829 and took his final vows in 1832. In 1835, he was forced to flee to the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, after the Anti-Catholic government of Isabella II of Spain decreed the closing of all monasteries and the secularization of monks as a result of the First Carlist War. He was received into the Abbey of Trinità della Cava, near Naples, where he was ordained to the priesthood in February 1839.

Strongly desiring to labor in the foreign missions, his wish was granted after John Brady was consecrated as first Bishop of the Diocese of Perth. With his longtime friend Father Joseph Serra OSB, Salvado sailed from London with the Bishop’s party and landed in Fremantle in January 1846. At Brady’s instruction, Salvado and Serra, alongside a small party of their fellow Benedictines, journeyed deep into the Victoria Plains via ox drawn cart. On 1 March 1846, they founded The Central Mission” in the midst of the bush. #060222R