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JOSÉ Apacio Sanz and 232 companion
martyrs of the religious persecution during the Spanish civil war 1936-1939
The Second Spanish Republic, proclaimed on 14 April 1931,
was marked by fierce anticlericalism. Just a month after its founding, fires
broke out in churches in Madrid, Valencia, Málaga and other cities; the
Government took no steps to prevent such acts and no attempt was made to find
those responsible so that they could be brought before the law. The damage was
extensive, but the Government offered no material or moral support for repairs
and was therefore accused of complicity. The Church had shown the Republic not
only respect but also a spirit of cooperation for the good of Spain. These were
the instructions which Pope Pius XI and the Bishops gave to Catholics. But the
sectarian laws increased day by day. It was in this context that the Society of
Jesus was suppressed and the Jesuits expelled.
During the populist Revolution in Asturias (October 1934),
the blood of many priests and religious was shed; among these were the ten
martyrs of Turón (nine Brothers of the Christian Schools and one Passionist)
canonized on 21 November 1999.
During the first half of 1936, after the victory of the
Popular Front - a movement comprised of anarcho-syndicalists, socialists,
communists, and other radical groups - acts with graver consequences were
perpetrated as more churches were set on fire, crosses were destroyed, parish
priests were driven away, burials and processions were forbidden, etc., and
there were threats of even greater violence.
This violence was unleashed with great fury after 18 July
1936. From then until 1 April 1939, Spain became once again a land of martyrs.
In the territory of the Republic there began the most extensive religious
persecution known to history since the time of the Roman Empire, a persecution
greater even than that of the French Revolution
The three-year period from 1936 to 1939 was both tragic and
glorious, and must be faithfully recalled so that the historical memory may not
be lost.
Before the persecution came to an end, the number of martyrs
grew to almost ten thousand: 13 Bishops; 4184 diocesan priests and seminarians;
2365 religious men; 283 religious women; and many thousands of lay men and
women, active members of Acción Católica
and other apostolic associations, the exact
number of whom we are still unable to determine.
The clearest testimony of this persecution was offered by
Manuel de Irujo, Minister of the Republican Government. At the beginning of
1937, during a Government meeting in Valencia (then the capital of the
Republic), he presented the following memorandum: The actual
situation of the Church, since July last, in all of the loyal areas except the
Basque region, is the following:
a)
All altars, images and liturgical objects, with very rare
exceptions, have been destroyed, and for the most part with contempt.
b)
All churches are closed to public worship, which has been totally
and absolutely stopped.
c)
A great number of churches have been burnt down, and in Catalonia
this was done to order.
d) Parks and official organizations have received bells,
chalices, monstrances, candelabras and other liturgical objects which they have
melted down, even using the material for the war effort and for industrial
purposes.
e) Churches have been turned into warehouses of all kinds:
markets, garages, meeting halls, barracks, shelters and other such
purposes.
f) All convents have been vacated and religious life has
been eradicated. The buildings, liturgical objects and other possessions have
been burnt, appropriated, occupied or demolished. g) Priests and
religious by the thousands have been detained, thrown into prison and summarily
executed by firing squad. Such treatment, although on the decrease, is still
going on, not only in rural areas – where priests and religious have been
savagely hunted down and killed – also in the towns. Madrid and Barcelona and
the other big cities have hundreds of prisoners in their jails for no other
reason than the fact that they are priests or religious. h) There is now
an absolute prohibition against private possession of images or liturgical
objects. The police responsible for making house searches, invading homes and
people’s intimate personal and family lives, show contemptuous ridicule and
violence in destroying images, prints, religious books and anything connected
with religion or constituting a reminder of it.
The Archbishop of Tarragona, Cardinal Francisco Vidal y
Baraquer (1868-1943), who had found refuge in Italy, said when he was invited by
the Republican Government in 1938 to return to his Diocese: He then adds: "All the faithful, particularly priests and religious, are perfectly aware of the murders which have been committed against many of their brothers, of the burning and desecration of churches and sacred things, of the State’s lack of concern for all ecclesiastical property; and they note that up to the present the Church has received from the Government no reparation, not even an apology or a protest." Essential for
information on this persecution are the following authors and works: Antonio
Montero Moreno, Historia de la Persecución Religiosa en España. 1936-1939
(Madrid, BAC, 1960,
reprinted in 1999); Vicente Carcel Orti, La Persecución Religiosa
en España durante la Segunda Reptiblica (1931-1939) (Madrid, Rialp,
1990), Mártires Españoles del Siglo XX (Madrid, BAC, 1995), Buio
sull’Altare. La Persecuzione Religiosa Spagnola. 1931-1939 (Rome, Città
Nuova, 1999), La Gran Persecución. España 1931-1939 (Barcelona, Planeta,
2000), Mártires del Siglo XX. Cien Preguntas y Respuestas (Valencia,
Edicep, 2001), and Persecuciones Religiosas y Mártires del Siglo XX
(Madrid, Palabra, 2001). For
information on the martyrs of Valencia, cf. V.
Carcel Orti and R. Fita Revert, Mártires Valencianos del Siglo XX
(Valencia, Edicep,
1998).
THE MARTYRSPeople began to call the priests, religious and laity who gave their lives for God “martyrs” because they were neither politically involved nor at war with anyone. They are therefore to be considered not as casualties of war or victims of the ideological repression which existed in both zones, but martyrs for the faith.
The martyrs being beatified by the Pope today are a sign of
the Church’s unity and diversity, and this ceremony has great pastoral
significance, for it brings together in one ceremony many individuals martyred
in one Archdiocese. It is also significant that:
- the group of martyrs represents all sectors of the Church,
since it includes priests, religious and laity, representing
many of the Church’s charisms and families of consecrated life;
- the martyrs also represent the Church throughout Spain,
since they came
from 37 dioceses. They all happened to be in Valencia, carrying out their
respective ministries and apostolic activities, and they have been brought
together in the same canonical process in accordance with current canonical
legislation;
- the group includes a large number of secular priests and
laity,
among them 40 members of the diocesan presbyterates of
Valencia (37) and Zaragoza (3), as well as 22 women and 20 adults and young men,
members of the then flourishing Spanish Catholic Action and other associations
of secular apostolate, of all ages,- professions and social status;
- the present favorable pastoral situation
has produced a
renewed interest throughout the Spanish Dioceses regarding this glorious page of
recent history. Though neglected for a time, it is a testimony to the faith and
fidelity of the Church in Spain and more specifically in Valencia, a diocese
which dates from the martyrdom of Saint Vincent at the beginning of the fourth
century.
The advancement of the canonical processes, the relevant
catechesis and the fama martyrii have led to increased interest and
devotion to the martyrs in the Christian community.
Consequently, the beatification of the martyrs as a group is
very timely. It is to be hoped that it will result in a more intense Christian
life, greater spiritual fervor and renewed interest in keeping alive the memory
of these glorious witnesses to the Faith.
Thanks to the favorable spiritual climate created by the
Great Jubilee of the Year 2000, it has been possible to bring the long canonical
process to completion and to celebrate this beatification on 11 March 200 1, as
the first spiritual fruit of the recently ended Ho Year These martyrs are the first Blesseds of the Third Millennium.
THE SPIRITUALITY
OF THESE MARTYRS
The majority of the priests and laity did not need martyrdom
in order to be beatified, since already in their lifetime they enjoyed a
reputation for holiness. It has even been said that some of them were so
virtuous that this was the very reason why they were
martyred.
All were exemplary men and women, completely devoted to
their respective apostolates. The priests were, from their days in the seminary,
models of virtue, of love of the Eucharist and of devotion to the Virgin Mary.
They were fully dedicated to their parishes: liturgical worship, confessions,
catechesis, youth ministry, regular visits to the sick, assistance to the poor
and the needy were their chief ministries.
The same must be said of the men and women religious, who
engaged tirelessly in pastoral and social work in schools, nurseries and
hospitals, work that has never been sufficiently acknowledged. Many of them, as
well as being martyrs for the faith, were apostles of charity, religious
instruction and education.
The priests were like the saintly Curé of Ars in the
fulfillment of their ministry; they were also like another parish priest of
Valencia, not himself a martyr, but whose process of beatification is already
under way: the Servant of God José Bau Burguet, parish priest of
Masarrochos, who died in 1932. He exercised a decisive influence on the
spiritual formation of the priests of Valencia in the first third of the
twentieth century.
The men, women and young people were very devout and
committed to the Church and her charitable and apostolic works. Born into and
brought up in families of long-standing Christian tradition, they received a
solid religious training and lived a true Christian life, nourished daily by the
Eucharist, devotion to Our Lady, the recitation of the rosary and other
devotions. They were dedicated to the apostolate in their respective parishes
through Catholic Action and other apostolic associations; they bore consistent
witness to the Christian life, culminating in their martyrdom. AU were martyred
solely and exclusively because of their religion. They died showing love and
forgiveness for their executioners and crying out the words: ‘Long live Christ
the King!’, for they had a deep theological sense of Christ’s kingship and this
was the cry with which Christians faced the totalitarian regimes of the
twentieth century.
Today we venerate them liturgically as martyrs for the
Christian faith, because the Church has officially recognized that they gave
their fives for God during the religious persecution of 1936. We should not call
them casualties of war, since they were not involved in the war nor did
they wage war on anyone. They were peaceful men and women, living normal lives
in their own towns and parishes. Nor should they be called victims of
political repression, since the basic reason for their death was not
political or ideological but religious: they died because they were priests,
religious and practicing Catholic laity, committed to the Church in the defense
and promotion of the Christian faith.
THE CANONICAL
PROCESSES
During the religious
persecution carried out under the Republic, the Archdiocese of Valencia paid one
of the highest tolls in bloodshed (361 priests, 373 men and 93 women of Catholic
Action, and several hundred men and women religious from different Institutes).
This explains why most of these processes of beatification were introduced and
completed in Valencia. Supported by
Archbishops Marcelino Olaechea (1946-1966) and the Servant of God
José
Maria Garcia Lahiguera (1969-1978), as well as by the Diocesan
Presbyterate and the Lay Forum and the respective Religious Orders and
Congregations, Valencia devoted much effort to completing these canonical
processes. They proved to be a tool of evangelization, especially in the fields
of catechesis, youth ministry and the promotion of vocations. SOURCE: UFFIZIO DELLE CELEBRAZIONI LITURGICHE DEL SOMMO PONTIFICE
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Copyright © 2001 [The
Hagiography Circle]. All rights reserved.
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