![\"\"](\"http:\/\/claretianszimbabwe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/martyrs-poster-1.jpg\")
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This group is made up of Claretians from different communities: Barcelona, Castro Urdiales, Cervera, L\u00e9rida, Sabadell, Valencia, Vic and Sallent. All died heroically because of their faith, because they were religious. There were 49 priests, 31 brothers and 29 students. They died with a average age of 39, in different places:<\/span><\/p>\n In the city of Barcelona, the Claretian Missionaries had two communities\u00a0in\u00a01936.\u00a0One was the Provincial Curia with a public\u00a0school\u00a0and Church. On July 19th\u00a01936,\u00a0this\u00a0community was\u00a0made up of\u00a058 members.\u00a0The second community was located on Ripoll Street. Its focus was dedicated to the apostolate of the press, the\u00a0Coculsa\u00a0editorial,\u00a0and preaching.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n On the morning of July 19th, 1936, the faithful,\u00a0who went to the 9 am\u00a0Mass, spoke with the missionaries\u00a0and found all of them hopeful and ready to shed their blood for Christ.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>Once the members of the community were dispersed,\u00a0each managed as well as he could. Twelve members of the community were shot\u00a0between\u00a0the 25th\u00a0July and the 28th\u00a0August.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n On the afternoon of July 20th<\/span>,\u00a01936, the doorman of the building warned them that according to information, their stay in\u00a0the\u00a0house\u00a0was already dangerous. On July 21st<\/span>,\u00a0the community disbanded and each of its members sought refuge where they could.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The militia arrived and made a record of those they could find, or made a list\u00a0with\u00a0photos\u00a0of all the individuals and the addresses of the houses\u00a0in which\u00a0they had stayed. The same happened when they imprisoned the Superior, who had in his possession the list of the shelter for each one. With this information, when they recorded the missionaries\u2019\u00a0whereabouts, they couldn\u2019t be deceived with false explanations. For this reason,\u00a0the missionaries were captured.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The Claretian Missionaries of these two communities\u00a0of Barcelona,\u00a0who were killed as martyrs,\u00a0numbered twenty. But they were unable to open the Canonical Process for all of them because on the last days, the majority of them were either unaccounted for or their place of burial was unknown.<\/p>\n On July 18th, after the first murder in Castro\u00a0Urdiales, the Claretian\u2019s sensed\u00a0a bad omen. The priests understood the danger and on the 19th<\/span>,\u00a0the Claretians\u00a0decided to move to another place. The Claretians decided that each would go his own way to where\u00a0he\u00a0would feel safe. That same day,\u00a0two went to Bilbao, the rest went to various houses.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The Claretians who went to Bilbao took refuge in modest pensions;\u00a0the seven who took refuge in the private homes of Castro\u00a0Urdiales,\u00a0were discovered and arrested.\u00a0They disappeared, so we believe they were killed. In the house six\u00a0remained, with the hope of not losing control of the school when the others left. These had to suffer the demands, blasphemies and brutalities of the Reds.\u00a0In the early days, militia men\u00a0and women burned the courtyard.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Fathers Gelada and Carrascal and Brother Barrio hid in an asylum run by nuns and were arrested on October 13th, 1936, in the morning, by a troop of militia. Next day they were executed.<\/p>\n On July 21st, 1936,\u00a0the community consisted of 116 religious, distributed as follows: 30 Priests, 51\u00a0students and 35 Brothers. In addition, there were 63 pre-postulants, who\u00a0would be distributed between their families. Of the 116 religious, 67 were martyred.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n On July 21st, 1936, the President, Mr.\u00a0Companuys\u00a0authorized the seizure of religious buildings and on the same day,\u00a0in the morning, the\u00a0community\u00a0building\u00a0was surrounded by armed militia.\u00a0Father Superior gave orders not to approach the windows thus avoiding any possible misunderstanding. That same day, at four in the afternoon, the Mayor of Cervera telephoned the Superior with the order to leave the building within one hour. This order was meant to hinder the faction of the City Council from carrying out its intention to murder the religious.<\/p>\n The missionaries had to change their habits for regular clothes and present\u00a0themselves before the gate of the orchard, as Father\u00a0Giron\u00a0decided to leave this way\u00a0rather than\u00a0by\u00a0the main door,\u00a0to avoid more publicity. Before leaving they were searched carefully to see if they were carrying guns.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n It was at the end of the search when one of the communists cried:\u00a0\u00abEveryone in a row and against the wal<\/i>l\u00bb<\/i>.<\/i>\u00a0A sense of panic ran through the everyone\u2019s bodies.\u00a0Why would they place us in a row and in front of the wall\u00a0to\u00a0look for weapons? So many judging with words coming out freely.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The revolutionaries asked Father Superior where the community would go. He answered, to\u00a0Solsona\u00a0and, if it was not possible, the place closest to the French border.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n At the door there were transfer buses waiting. Those boarding the bus were; 15 Priests, 44 Students, 25 Brothers and 63 Postulants. There were 21 who stayed in\u00a0Cervera\u00a0hosted in private homes. In the hospital there were also the sick and elderly. In Mas Claret there were another 11,\u00a0who were captured by the militia.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The bus began moving towards Solsona, according to Father Superior who believed it was a safe place. Yet\u00a0there was a sense of uneasiness. On the outskirts, the bus came upon the cemetery. At a signal from the guide car,\u00a0the procession stopped.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n After some reflection, they were sent to San Ram\u00f3n, Convent of the Mercedarios, who sent them. The next day, July 22nd, there was some peace and the Postulants were taken to their homes and the students Jos\u00e9 Lonc\u00e1n and Evaristo Bueria were taken to the hospital.<\/p>\n In the morning\u00a0of the 23rd<\/span>,\u00a0they were able to celebrate\u00a0Mass. Soon the situation changed,\u00a0as the word spread that the communists from a nearby village were coming to set fire to the convent. The Claretian Missionaries had to leave the convent and in groups of three they went to the estate of\u00a0 Mas Claret.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n At eight in the morning of the 24th; at Mas Claret a group of Communists arrived\u00a0apparently\u00a0to record everything, but in reality, to requisition and take everything from the misionaries. All was seized and they were forbidden to use their property,\u00a0even the food. An attempt was made by the foreign students to contact the Consulates of their country. The rest were divided into two groups.<\/p>\n The first group consisted of 15 religious, 14 students and one priest, Fr. Jov\u00e9, who where the first martyrs of the Cervera community. They were killed in the afternoon on the 26th July.<\/p>\n The second group was led by Father Jos\u00e9\u00a0Mir in the direction of\u00a0Bellvis. They hoped to find refuge as the storm of persecution passed by. The second group achieved their objective.<\/p>\n A third group, made up, among others, of some with poor health, stayed in Mas Claret. On the 1st August some armed individuals arrived with threats and menaces. They took Frs. Juan Agust\u00ed and Felipe Calvo and led them before the authorities. Brother Esteban Mestres escaped from them, but he was assassinated later in Barcelona. In this atmosphere, they spent those weeks up to the 19 October 1936. This day they were grouped in fours between ropes and rifles. Among the 18 missionaries shot, there were three priests, nine brothers and six students.<\/p>\n The elderly and the sick of the community of Cervera went to the hospital accompanied by Fathers Jaume Gir\u00f3n and Pere Sitges. They numbered fourteen. All of them were killed during the month of September and October of 1936.<\/p>\n When the community of Cervera was dispersed, Brother Ferr\u00e1n sought refuge in the town of Montpalau. Not being the most appropriate place, he went to the farmhouse of his friend Bofarull, but was detained. There, he declared that he was a religious and began his Calvary. In Cervera, they took him to some brothels, forced him to consent to the most vulgar and vile proposals. Brother Saperas always responded: \u201cI am a virgin, and a virgin I will die!\u201d. In the end, on the road to the cemetery, as they were going to kill him, he said to them: \u201cI forgive you! I forgive you! I forgive you!\u201d.<\/p>\n When\u00a0the\u00a0house\u00a0and\u00a0church\u00a0of\u00a0St. Paul was plundered, the eleven missionaries of the community of L\u00e9rida took refuge in a family home. There they were arrested, six were taken to the prison. Fr. Joan Busquets was left in the house and the superior, Fr. Frederic Codina, was presented before the Revolutionary Comitee to be returned also to the prison. While he was walking there, guarded by a squad of militia, in the Paheria plaza, they discharged their rifles into him. It was the 21st July.<\/p>\n The priests Agust\u00ed Lloses, Artur Tamarit, Manuel Torres, Miquel Baixeras, Llu\u00eds Albi and Xavier Morell, with the Brothers Joan Garriga and \u00c1ngel Dolcet, interned in the macrojail of L\u00e9rida were expecting to die from one day to the next. The first\u00a0to die\u00a0were\u00a0Tamarit, Torres and\u00a0Baixeras. It was 25th July. On the 21st August the Claretians Lloses, Albi, Morell, Garriga and Dolcet would be martyred.\u00a0Fr. Xavier\u00a0Surribas, from the community of La\u00a0Selva\u00a0del Campo was also martyred in\u00a0L\u00e9rida, in the train station.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n In this community there were eleven missionaries; only eight of them would come to be added to the list of martyrs. Josep Reixach was the first. He died on the 25th July. The last one was killed on the 17th March 1937.<\/p>\n With the Revolution, each member was already prepared to find refuge and if need\u00a0be\u00a0to take a brother along. Some like\u00a0Mr\u00a0Tana, had gone to the convent to offer his home to the missionaries as a refuge. This is what happened with the expulsion of the community on\u00a0July 19th\u00a0of 1936.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The first to leave that day was Fr. Torrents. Since he was almost blind, he sought refuge outside of Sabadell with some of his relatives. The others left the house in the evening so as to go unnoticed.\u00a0The house and the church were looted and burned on July 21st.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Father\u00a0Reixach\u00a0was shot on July 25th. This all took place in the middle of the Street and he was buried in a common grave of Sabadell. The others six members of the community, except Fr. Torrent, were\u00a0captured\u00a0on\u00a0August 4th. All of these were arrested in the homes where they sought refuge, and jailed.\u00a0They were killed on 5th September of 1936.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Father\u202fJuan Torrents\u00a0<\/b>was the last to die. He was\u00a0discovered\u00a0at the Fonda where he was hiding;\u00a0neither\u00a0his 73 years,\u00a0nor\u00a0his\u00a0blindness could save him\u00a0from\u00a0going to the frightening jail of San El\u00edas, until March 17th<\/span>\u202fwhen they took him out to\u00a0go\u00a0to the\u00a0Montcada\u00a0cemetery.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n By mid-1936, only the Valencia residence was open because they were\u00a0forced to close the others,\u00a0because of political and social circumstances. Valencia was also the backdrop for martyrdom, with the death of four priests.<\/p>\n The first martyr was Father Luis Franc\u00e9s, who accepted the invitation to go to a small town. It looked like a corner of paradise, until the militiamen from the Capital showed\u00a0up in\u00a0the place,\u00a0on August 20th, looking for a Father\u00a0from\u00a0the neighborhood who had gone to Barcelona, but they found Father\u00a0Franc\u00e9s. He was taken prisoner, and after a few hours, with a strong \u201cLive Christ the King<\/i>!\u201d on his lips,\u00a0he fell under the bullets\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Towards 10 in the morning of the August 12th, Fathers Alonso and Gordon went to the Electra Valenciana to talk to their good friend, Don Paco Comas. They needed to find a safer place than the inn where they had spent the night. The presence of the Fathers made the employees suspicious; they notified the Committee by telephone, and immediately representatives and militia were sent, who arrested the three in the office and brought them before the Committee.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n They made a slight statement and, as you could\u00a0see from their\u00a0ID\u00a0that the two were teachers and single and had the same address, they deduced that they were priests and religious and locked them\u00a0up\u00a0there, while they let Don Paco free. Immediately other militia moved to the house to look for those who were there. There was only Fr\u00a0Galipienzo, and he was imprisoned\u00a0also.\u00a0They died between the last days of August and the first of September.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n On July 13rd, 1936,\u00a0a member of the opposition was murdered by public order of\u00a0the Leftist party. This action gave most of the people the impression that the revolution was imminent. For this reason, the Claretians had the file documents removed and the main relic of the Blessed Anthony Mary Claret was\u00a0hidden.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n After eating, the priests saw from the library that some trucks had arrived full of militia.\u00a0The Superior gave everyone permission to leave the house in hopes of finding safety.\u00a0The priests\u00a0went\u00a0out in groups.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n At three in the afternoon, Fr.\u00a0Bertrams, the Vice Postulator and\u00a0the\u00a0guardian of the tomb, Father Tom\u00e1s Pujadas set about saving the sacred body of Blessed Claret. Father Mariano\u00a0Brossa\u00a0had gone to ask for permission from the Prelate and would come back hoping everything\u00a0was\u00a0ready.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Father\u00a0Brossa\u00a0arrived,\u00a0accompanied by the Pro-Vicar of Bishop. He had obtained\u00a0the authorization of the Bishop.\u00a0The remains\u00a0of\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Father Claret were\u00a0rescued\u00a0and safe. On the 21st, the community began their dispersal to families who offered them refuge.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n In Vic, the priest Jos\u00e9 Arner and Casto Navarro were the first victims, on the night of the 7th to 8th August, in Sant Sadurn\u00ed d’Osormot, close to Vic. Later it would be the priests, Josep Puigdessens, and Julio Aramendia, who would die on the morning of 17th August.<\/p>\n The Fr. Joan Blanch was killed on the 31st\u00a0 August.\u00a0On the 24th October, the priests Joan\u00a0Codinach, Miquel\u00a0Codina\u00a0and Bro. Jose Casals, all received the palm\u00a0of martyrdom. The final martyr of the Vic community would be Brother Miguel\u00a0Facer\u00edas. It was the 22nd February of 1937. In total, nine Claretians suffered martyrdom in Vic.<\/p>\n The community of Sallent, were also to be splattered by the blood of the missionaries. At eight in the morning on July 20th 1936, some militia arrived to search the house and the chapel. The record was closely scrutinized by all the militia units and they withdrew without finding any weapons. At noon, the Town Council notified the Claretians that there was a need to leave the house immediately, to avoid any mishaps. At this time, the community had five individuals, who all died martyrs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" MISSIONARIES TO THE END This group is made up of Claretians from different communities: Barcelona, Castro Urdiales, Cervera, L\u00e9rida, Sabadell, Valencia, Vic and Sallent. All died heroically because of their faith, because they were religious. There were 49 priests, 31 brothers and 29 students. They died with a average age of 39, in different …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/claretianszimbabwe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3086"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/claretianszimbabwe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/claretianszimbabwe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/claretianszimbabwe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/claretianszimbabwe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3086"}],"version-history":[{"count":36,"href":"https:\/\/claretianszimbabwe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3086\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4120,"href":"https:\/\/claretianszimbabwe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3086\/revisions\/4120"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/claretianszimbabwe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3086"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
BARCELONA<\/strong><\/h4>\n
Acceptance of the\u00a0<\/b>Martyrdom<\/b><\/h5>\n
Dispersion of the community<\/b>\u00a0<\/b>of<\/b>\u00a0Ripoll<\/b>\u00a0<\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h5>\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/claretianszimbabwe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/122_0.jpg\")
<\/p>\nConclusion<\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h5>\n
CERVERA<\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h4>\n
Dispersion of the community<\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h5>\n
The<\/b>\u00a0<\/b>Martyrs<\/b>\u00a0<\/b>at<\/b>\u00a0<\/b>the<\/b>\u00a0<\/b>Hospital<\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h5>\n
Brother\u00a0<\/b>Ferr\u00e1<\/b>n<\/b>\u00a0<\/b>Saperas<\/b>\u00a0<\/b>Aluja<\/b><\/h5>\n
L\u00c9RIDA<\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h4>\n
SABADELL<\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h4>\n
VALENCIA<\/b>\u00a0<\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h4>\n
The others three martyrs<\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h5>\n
VIC AND SALLENT<\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h4>\n
Dispersion of the community<\/b>\u00a0of Vic<\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h5>\n
The community of\u00a0<\/b>Sallent<\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h5>\n