Charles Joseph Eugene de Mazenod was born in France, at Aix-en-Provence, on August 1, 1782 to a family of noble jurists and merchant bourgeoisie. During the French Revolution, he and his family were forced into exile in Italy, whereupon they experienced suffering from grave hardships. When he returned to his country at the age of twenty, he became acutely aware of the troubled situation in which the Church found herself, the distressing condition of the clergy and the tremendous religious ignorance of the people. He was ordained a priest in 1811 with the dream to be "the servant and priest of the poor".
Eugene began his ministry in Aix by reaching out to the poor people, to the youth, to those in prison. He soon experienced the overwhelming nature of the situation and realized that he needed to gather a group of zealous priests to work with him, primarily to awaken "a faith that had all but died in the hearts of so many". Thus, on January 25, 1816, was born the society of the Missionaries of Provence.
Father de Mazenod invited his companions "to live together as brothers" and "to imitate the virtues and examples of our Saviour Jesus Christ, above all through the preaching of the Word of God to the poor".
The tiny Society received approval from Pope Leo XII on February 17, 1826, and from then on took the name of the Congregation of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate. Its motto: "He has sent me to evangelize the poor" expressed both its charism and way of life.
By 1834, the missionaries had spread out from Provence into neighbouring Corsica after which this small Society began a period of great expansion: in 1841, to Canada where they ventured into the vast plains of the West and within a few years reached the Arctic Circle; in 1842, to England; in 1847, to the United States and Ceylon, now known as Sri Lanka; in 1851, to South Africa, and in 1855, to Ireland.
Shortly before his death on May 21, 1861, in keeping with his temperament, the elderly and seriously ill bishop said to those around him: "Should I happen to doze off, or if I appear to be getting worse, please wake me up! I want to die knowing that I am dying". To his Oblates he spoke these last words, a testament that summed up bis life: "Practice well among yourselves charity charity, charity and outside, zeal for the salvation of souls". Saint Eugene died on Pentecost Sunday to the prayer of the Salve Regina, his final salute on earth to the one he considered as the "Mother of the Mission".
Saint Eugene's main spiritual synthesis is the book of the Constitutions and Rules of his Institute, a code of missionary action and of apostolic religious life. "The spirit of total devotion for the glory of God, the service of the Church and the salvation of souls is the spirit proper to our Congregation", he wrote in 1817. He further stated, in 1830, that we must look upon ourselves "as the servants of the Father of a family commanded to succour, to aid, to bring back his children by working to the utmost, in the midst of tribulations, of persecutions of every kind, without claiming any reward other than that which the Lord has promised to faithful servants who have worthily fulfilled their mission".
All his life, as a priest, a missionary and a bishop, Saint Eugene sought to teach the poor "who Jesus Christ is". Paul VI said of him that he had been a pastor passionately committed to Jesus Christ and an unconditional servant of the Church. John Paul Il on the day of his canonization, December 3, 1995, declared Saint Eugene as an "Advent man", one who opens the ways to the Lord whose new coming will be the fulfilment longed for by all humanity.
Born near Nancy, France, in the village of Bouxières-aux-Chénes on March l2th 1831, Joseph Gérard spent his childhood on the family farm but, with the help of the parish priest, was able to commence studies for the priesthood. Whilst in the local seminary he was impressed by accounts of the missionary work of some priests of the newly-founded Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate, and, desiring to join them in their endeavours, he entered the Oblate Congregation. He was ordained a deacon by the Founder of the Oblates, Blessed Eugene de Mazenod, who with great confidence in Joseph assigned him, at the age of 22, to the mission of Natal in South Africa.
In May 1853 Joseph Gérard set off for his mission field never to see France again. On Feb. l9th 1854 he was ordained priest by Bishop Allard O.M.I. in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa, and started his ministry to the local white population, but especially to the Zulu People. His years of journeying through difficult countryside, of sleeping in the open, of learning new languages, of cold and of heat began. Despite all his good efforts, his ministry among the Zulus did not seem to bear immediate fruit, and with a sense of great disappointment in this apparent failure he moved in 1862 to Lesotho to bring the Gospel to the Basotho People. Fr. Gérard, however, lived to see the movement of faith later among the Zulus, and he rejoiced in the grace of God so wonderfully given and received. He had been part of sowing the first seed.
But Lesotho was to become his new mission field, and he laboured there for the next 52 years. Together with this nation he was to travel a wonderful journey to God. Faced initially with indifference, even scorn at times, Fr. Gérard worked and prayed for more than two years before he won his first Basotho catechumen. Even after that progress was slow, but his determination, his dedication, his forgetfulness of self took effect quietly but surely. The Catholic missionaries were well received by the King, Moshoeshoe I, and Fr. Gérard showed his gratitude for this by his loyalty especially when the nation was under attack by the Boers. Moshoeshoe, much to Gérard's disappointment, never embraced Christianity, but later his grandson Griffith Lerotholi who rose to be Paramount Chief became a Catholic, to the very great joy of Fr. Gérard.
However, more and more people in these early years heard the message of Christ, and carne to the Church. There were many baptisms, there were some defections, but in God's good time the work of Fr. Gérard grew apace. Grace was taking hold of the Basotho. Within five years of his corning there was the beginnings of a Congregation of local sisters and his first mission station at Roma was to blossom. Today it is the site of many novitiates and of seminaries, a University founded by the Oblates, high schools, numerous religious houses, a hospital - all the legacy of this remarkable man of God.
Throughout his years in Lesotho Fr. Gérard's concern and care for the sick and the old was remarkable - even heroic at times. Despite the distance, despite the weather, despite the inconvenience, he would set out on foot or on horseback, carrying the Blessed Sacrament, to minister to those afflicted. His deep devotion to Mary was absorbed by his first converts, and since his day the nation has been dedicated to Mary Immaculate. There is no count of the miles he travelled up and down the steep mountains of Lesotho, and his all-embracing care of the weak, the sick, of those in need is part of the history and lore of the people of Lesotho. His deep commitment to prayer was always an example to the people, and at his funeral one of them expressed it weII: "Fr. Gérard was a man who, you might say, did not eat food but fed himself on prayer, and if prayer is something with which one can feed the people, then he has fed us Basotho too for a very long time".
Fr. Gérard laboured for many years preaching, consoling, leading to God, and kept contact also with people in South Africa. The last years of his life were spent back at his first mission, Roma. He still continued his rounds of visiting even when arthritis bent him over almost double, his sight was mostly gone, and he had to be lifted up on to his faithful horse "Artaban". Up to a month before his death he was out on the mountain tracks caring for those in need. He was 83 at the time. On May 29th 1914 after a life of patient and enduring devotion Joseph Gérard in the fullness of years carne face to face with the Master he had served so long and so well.
Fr. Gérard, in one of his retreat notes, gave the key to his constancy when he wrote about the people he served: "... we must love them, love them in spite of everything, love them always". He lived out his belief in the joy of spreading God's Word, despite the hardships and opposition he encountered. In his loving he drew the Basothos with him to the contemplation of God. The Church recognised this when Pope John Paul Il, on his 1988 pastoral visit to Lesotho, knelt at the grave of his great missionary, and on September l5th before a vast multitude of the Basotho people declared their spiritual father, Blessed Joseph Gérard, O.M.I. Love had reached its fullness.
"THE WORLD BELONGS TO THE PERSON WHO LOVES IT MOST, AND PROVES IT"
Blessed Jozef Cebula was born March 23, 1902 at Malnia in southern Poland. At the age of 19 be entered the Congregation of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate. After his ordination to the priesthood he was given the responsibility of forming other candidates for the priesthood, first as professor and director of the minor seminary in Lubliniec (1923-37) and later as novice master in Markowice (1937-41). During this time he was also active in the preaching ministry and was much sought after as a confessor. When the Nazis occupied Poland during the Second World War, he was forbiddei to exercise his priestly ministry and obliged to work in the fields. But at night the zealous priest celebrated the Eucharist and administered the sacraments in the surrounding villages. It was for this that he was deported to the concentration camp at Mauthausen where he was forced to break rocks in the quarry. The guards humiliated and mocked him by ordering him to sing the texts of the Mass while he worked. He died a martyr May 9, 1941 in a volley of bullets.
Blessed be you, o Christ, crucified and glorious Good Shepherd! Your strength was made known in the weakness of Blessed Jozef who by his dedication to the formation of young men for the priesthood and the pastoral care of your people, merited to sacrifice himself to the Father in union with You. Grant us by his intercession the grace we humbly request. You who live and reign for ever and ever. Amen.
As an adventure-loving youngster in his native Trent in Italy, Mario loved climbing trees, riding the streets in a bicycle too large for him and walking in the mountains. Growing up in a deeply Christian family environment he experienced an attraction for the priesthood and went to the diocesan minor seminary, of which time he wrote: "I loved Jesus in the sacraments and Mary, I prayed, I studied successfully, I dreamt…". At the major seminary his love for nature matured in him a sensitive observation of people and things which was expressed in what he regularly wrote in his diary. His fellow-seminarians later spoke about their becoming aware of a developing spiritual depth which was calling Mario to a deeper commitment.
While listening to a visiting missionary speaking, Mario became aware of his vocation to frontier apostolate as a Missionary Oblate, and that to achieve this it was necessary to cut links with being close to his family and friends. He consequently began his year of novitiate, defining it as " the year in which we taste our possibilities of total self-giving to the Lord, a year in which we find ourselves renouncing, emptying ourselves completely of ourselves, just as you would empty a bag of refuse, with no regrets, with no complaints."
During his years of preparation to be a missionary, he had a clear spiritual aim: to become moulded as closely as possible to Christ the Priest, victim and apostle. He wanted to achieve this by means of the Eucharist and Mary Immaculate: the Eucharist as the Bread broken, fruit of the sacrifice on the Cross, that is of love; Mary Immaculate because she gave Jesus to the world, and Mario wanted to imitate her to the point of becoming a missionary like her: as bearer of Christ the Saviour.
After his ordination in 1957 Mario was sent to Laos, one of the world's poorest countries with a small percentage of Christians. His first year was difficult and was spent in the backwater of the mission. He was unable to communicate with the people, struggled to learn the local language, and was unable to exercise his priestly ministry fully, leading him to express feelings of being useless: "My cross is myself, I am cross to myself. My cross is the language which I do not manage to learn. My cross is my timidity which prevents me from saying one word in Laotian". Here he received a taste of the difficulties of being a foreign missionary, but in it he sought the presence of God: "Everything is yours, even discomfort, anguish, remorse, darkness….I love you because you are Love"
Eventually, at 26 years of age, he received responsibility for his first mission station. The demands here were superior to his forces: looking after those who had already been converted to Christianity, apostolate to those who were far away, learning a new language, running a training school for new catechists, and queues of sick people to be looked after every day. The challenges were difficult, and Mario experienced the weight of this responsibility. Instead of giving in, he was able to find in his great love for Jesus the necessary strength to continue to believe that he was in this place because it was where God wanted him to be: "We missionaries are made in this way: to leave is normal, to move is a necessity; tomorrow the roads will be our houses; if we will be forced to stop temporarily in one house, we will transform it into a road to God."
His brief existence - he was never to reach his 28th birthday - came to an end in the solitude of the forest, along a track in the mountainside, while he was returning from an apostolic journey with his catechist, Shiong. They were put to death by a group of communist guerrillas, thus interrupting for ever on this earth, the marvellous dream of this young missionary.
"I have understood my vocation:
to be a happy man,
even in the effort to identify myself
with the Crucified Christ"
(Written just before pronouncing his perpetual vows in 1956)
Vital Grandin was born on February 8, 1829 at Saint-Pierre-sur-Orthe, in Mayenne, France. He was brought into the world by very poor parents. His parents' unique pride was in having healthy children. At the age of seven, God had already instilled a great desire in Vital to become a priest. With the help of many benefactors his dream was indeed to become a reality.
In 1846, he entered the Précigné Seminary, and in 1850 continued on to the Grand Seminary of Le Mans.
Being anxious to work in the Foreign Missions, and having a great desire to die a martyr, he entered the order of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate on December 28, 1851.
Three years later, on April 23rd, 1854 he was ordained a priest by Bishop de Mazenod, the Founder of the Oblates,. Shortly after, he left for the distant missions of Western Canada. During hall a century, he devoted himself entirely to the conversion of the Indian peoples and to the aid of the prairie settlers.
He was only 28 years old, when on December 11, 1857 he was appointed Bishop of Satala and co-adjutor of Saint Boniface. His motto: Infirma mundi elegit Deus (God chooses the weak of this world). His coat of arms. A bent reed and a cross.
Through hardships and dangers, ha travelled incessantly aver the vast prairie regions in an endeavour to save souls. He endured his crosses with true courage, and with a genuine love far ha fellow men.
On September 22nd, 1871, he was named Bishop of Saint Albert (Alberta), His apostolic field at the time consisted of a few scattered, poverty stricken missions.
With constant work and devotion, he is known to have left to his successors a well-organized and flourishing diocese.
He died a saintly death at Saint Albert on June 3rd, 1902. The cause of his beatification was introduced at Rome on February 24th, 1937.
On December l5th, 1966 Pope Paul VI promulgated the official decree of the heroic virtues of Venerable Bishop Grandin, 0Ml.
THE SOULS - I had the sorrow of witnessing many souls go astray because of the lack of missionaries, arid of other indispensable means.
VOCATIONS - I owe my vocation to God, and after Him to my mother. I am convinced that a call to a religious or ecclesiastical vocation cornea directly from God, who uses prudent, Christian parents as instruments by which He makes His will known.
SUFFERING - We are here on earth to suffer, but we do not have the courage to sacrifice ourselves as we should. Divine Providence takes care in sowing seeds of tribulations amidst our joys. We should not ha sad, for we know only too well that the road to heaven is one covered with many crosses.
OUR HOLY MOTHER - Our blessed mother in heaven loves us more ardently than our earthly mother. Pray often to her, for you are in great need of her help. Love her as your mother and may she protect and guide you.
HEAVEN - I hope to see you again in heaven. For this to be possible, I am counting less on our own sacrifices, than on God's. We will have a chance to reach heaven by different means. We will attain this goal by doing our duty.
LOVE - Your hearts make you suffer, if it were not for this, you would be inclined Io believe that complete happiness can have had here on earth. Look not on earth for happiness, but in heaven with God.
DEATH - I die on my travels, I wish that after my death the mystery of the redemption shall continue to be preached, that a cross be planted where I die, and that no transportation expenses be made in carrying my corpse, but that I be left there at the foot of the cross.
"I will continue with affection lo devote myself to you and to your works. And I even hope to continue after my death. If the good Lord, in his Mercy, allows me to his Paradise, He will also show me to continue this ministry of love and prayer." (Bishop Vital Grandin)
O God who by the grace of Thy Holy Spirit tempered the soul of Bishop Grandin with fortitude and humility and gent him as bearer of Thy life-giving Word to the peoples of the western plains, grant us grace to be strong in Thy faith, humbly confident in Thine aid and tireless in doing good. And bestow upon us, we humbly pray, through the intercession of this pioneer missionary the special grace which we seek from Thy sovereign goodness in the name of Jesus Christ Our Lord. Amen.
Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory be to God.
Ignatio and Lucia Zuraszek lived in the fertile region of Silesia on a beautiful land that eventually became too small to sustain their growing family.
Thus it was necessary for one of their sons to learn a new skill. Anthony, the sixth of twelve children, was chosen to train as a blacksmith; not because 'kowalczyk' meant 'blacksmith' but because such qualification would enable him to find work in neighbouring west Germany.
Anthony, who was born on 4th June 1866, was not dismayed by this decision because within his home he had learnt to obey his parents and to serve God.
On reaching working age, Anthony went to the ironworks of industrial Hamburg. It was rough there and he had to contend with constant provocation from his blasphemous and immoral co-workers. They were imbued with materialism and godlessness and Anthony countered their vocal assaults with absolute morality and religious conviction. He was sickened by that atmosphere and, while walking along a street in Hamburg, he fell to his knees and he cried out, "Lord, my God, I believe that You are in Heaven." It was time to move away.
Anthony left Hamburg not on a train bound for his beloved homeland but on one that headed for Germany's western city of Catholic Cologne. On arrival he went twice to pray at the tomb of Bl. Adolf Kolping, founder of an association for Catholic workers. Afterwards he walked to the outskirts of this great city and there he found what he longed for: a Catholic family that welcomed him as a son. Mr & Mrs Prummenbaum not only gave him lodging but, as exemplars of righteousness, they also enlightened Anthony and for this he was deeply grateful to them for the remainder of his life.
In this ambience of goodness and faith, facets emerged that led the lady to ask: "Would you like to become a missionary?" - "How can I, I am uneducated and besides I am already 25 years old." "That does not matter, I know missionaries who are in great need even of rudimentary help", and so Mrs Prummenbaum accompanied Anthony to a mission centre in nearby Holland... they were Oblates of Mary Immaculate.
Here Anthony assumed life in a community that was intent on following in the footsteps of Christ and the Apostles; a journey that would take him far geographically and in the deepening of virtue and brotherly love. His arrival was a blessing. Here was a man skilled in dealing with iron and machinery - what a windfall! All that he did was excellently done, but from time to time he would call on his superior to remind him that what he really wished for was to be a missionary. Time and again the superior would dismiss him with an amiable "we shall see". In time a pressing need arose and Anthony embarked on a ship that carried him across the ocean to the missions in north-western Canada.
At last he was at a real mission, stationed north of Edmonton where the Oblates had founded a school for youths who were entrusted to the care of nuns. There was a workshop in which a steam engine generated power for a saw-mill that supplied timber for missions further north. After working there for a year, a serious accident occurred that necessitated the amputation of Anthony's right forearm, Was this the end of his missionary venture? Not so, for Anthony was endowed with an uncommon ability to draw God's special graces on himself; additionally he generated great veneration of God in others
Those in charge of the missions continued to look to their humble, hardworking Brother for important functions in their administration. During those years, a school was opened at Edmonton for the training of young future-missionaries. Anthony spent the remainder of his life there until he died when he was 81.
He was an admirable example of a lifestyle humbly, totally and lovingly dedicated to service and, above all, to the intense search of God. He saw to central heating in the house, he assisted the nuns in the kitchen, he bred chickens, he cleaned the sanitation areas, he cultivated vegetables, he sharpened the pupils' skates and repaired their hockey sticks.
He was always available to the young for a prayer or a word of encouragement; his greatest joy was to watch them develop and persevere. An ex pupil wrote thus about Brother Anthony: "Though he did not enter our classrooms except on rare occasions, as faithful custodian he entered our lives in more ways than one to help mould our character. He used very few words, and these mostly in broken French; he spoke by his actions, by his exemplary conduct. These kept saying to us, 'Do you want to do the right thing to please God, here's a true pattern!"
"Me not educated, poor me,
blacksmith of my soul,
me Coadjutor Brother,
me always say YES,
me listen superiors,
me pray Holy Virgin,
me love the good God,
me help Good God, me happy."
(Spoken in his broken French)
Ovide Charlebois was borne at Oka in Canada on February 17th, 1862, and at the age of twenty entered the novitiate of the Missionary Oblates of Mary immaculate. In 1887 he was ordained priest and sent to the missions of the West. For sixteen years he lived alone at Cumbertand working amongst the Indians. Named Vicar Apostolic of Keewatin 1910, he laboured at the difficult task of organizing his vast vicariate with humble yet indomitable patience and courage until he died a holy death on November 20, 1933.
He believed that one as a font not to try fo be a saint. For his episcopal motto, he chose: To Jesus through Mary. His Cause or beatification was introduced on September 16, 1979.
O God whose servant Bishop Charlebois strove with admirable fortitude, patience and humility to bring Thy reing of love into a wilderness, make us like him steadfast in virtue and grant as through his intercession the special grace which we ask of Thy infinite goodness. Through Christ Our Lord. Amen.
Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory be to God.
"To this glorious band of martyrs belong many Spanish Christians, executed out of hatred for the faith in the years 1936-1939 … during the wicked persecution unleashed against the Church, its members and its institutions. Bishops, priests and religious were persecuted with particular hatred and cruelty; their only fault - if one can express it that way - was believing in Christ, preaching the Gospel and leading the people on the road to salvation. The enemies of Christ and of his teaching believed that by eliminating them, they could make the Church completely disappear from Spanish soil." (John Paul II, Decree of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, 1992)
The three-year period from 1936 until 1939 was a time of bloody martyrdom for the Church in Spain. During this religious persecution, there were thousands of persons who suffered violent death, who were tortured and shot solely because they were believers; or because they wore a cassock or religious habit; or because they were priests or religious who conducted pastoral ministry in parishes, schools and hospitals; or because they were dedicated laity, committed to their faith in Jesus Christ.
The priest and journalist, Antonio Montero, now a retired archbishop, in his doctoral thesis entitled History of the Religious Persecution in Spain (Historia de la persecución religiosa en España) presents a statistic of 6,932 members of the clergy and religious sacrificed in this persecution: 12 bishops, 4,172 secular clergy, 2,365 religious men and 283 religious women. It was impossible to come up with the number of Catholic laity murdered because they were believers.
It is justifiable to speak of martyrdom in the proper and true sense. Even at the time, Spanish bishops and the pope himself, Pius XI, did so. That was how the faithful who witnessed the events understood it and who now await the day when the Holy Church will say so publicly.
Within this general climate of hatred and antireligious fanaticism, one may justly place the martyrdom of 22 Oblates: priests, brothers and scholastics from Pozuelo de Alarcón (Madrid).
The Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate had established themselves in the Estación neighborhood of Pozuelo in 1929. They served as chaplains in three communities of sisters. They also provided pastoral service in the surrounding parishes: confessions and preaching, especially during Lent and Holy Week. Oblate scholastics taught catechism in four neighboring parishes and the Oblate choir sang at liturgical celebrations.
This religious activity began to worry the revolutionary committees (socialists, communists and the radical lay labor unions) in the Estación neighborhood. They were greatly worried that the "friars" (as they called them) were the driving force behind religious activity in Pozuelo and the surrounding area.
It irritated them that the religious went around in the streets in cassock with the Oblate cross very visible in their cincture.
Because of these exclusively religious activities, the seminary of the Missionary Oblates was becoming more and more intolerable to these Marxist groups.
The Oblates did not allow themselves be intimidated. They simply adopted an attitude of prudence, composure and calm, committing themselves not to respond to any provocative offense. And of course, none of the religious got mixed up in political activities, not even occasionally. In spite of that, they maintained their program of spiritual and intellectual formation and carried on the various pastoral activities that were part of the priestly and missionary formation of the scholastics.
Even though the demands of the revolutionaries were ever more hostile, the Oblate Superiors could not imagine that things would go as far as they eventually did. It did not even enter their minds that they could be victims of so much hate for their faith in God and for being messengers of Jesus Christ.
On July 20, 1936, socialist and communist youth took to the streets and began again to burn churches and convents, especially in Madrid.
The militia of Pozuelo, on the other hand, attacked the chapel in the Estación neighborhood; they threw vestments and images into the street and set them afire in a gigantic and sacrilegious orgy. They then burned the chapel and went on to repeat the same scene at the local parish.
On July 22, at three in the afternoon, a large contingent of militia, armed with shotguns and revolvers, attacked the Oblate house. The first thing they did was to round up the religious, some 38 of them, and lock them into a small room where they were closely guarded and threatened by the guns. It was a terribly tense moment because they all thought that they had arrived at the moment of their death. They couldn"t expect anything else, given the edgy, vulgar and chaotic attitude of the militia.
Next, the militia began a meticulous search of the house looking for guns. All that they managed to find were religious pictures, crucifixes, rosaries, and sacred vestments. They threw all of these objects into the stairwell to the lower floor so they could set fire to them in the street.
The Oblates were made prisoners in their own house, brought together in the refectory where the windows were barred. It was their first jail.
On the 24th, at about three in the morning, there were the first executions. Without an inquest, without an indictment, without judgment, without defence, they called out seven of the religious. The first ones sentenced were:
Juan Antonio PÉREZ MAYO, priest and professor, age 29.
Manuel GUTIÉRREZ MARTÍN, scholastic brother, age 23.
Cecilio VEGA DOMÍNGUEZ, scholastic brother, age 23.
Juan Pedro COTILLO FERNÁNDEZ, scholastic brother, age 22.
Pascual ALÁEZ MEDINA, scholastic brother, age 19.
Francisco POLVORINOS GÓMEZ, scholastic brother, age 26.
Justo GONZÁLEZ LORENTE, scholastic brother, age 21.
Without any explanation, they were loaded into two cars and taken to their martyrdom. The rest of the religious stayed at the Oblate house and dedicated their waiting hours to prayer and preparing themselves to die well.
Someone, probably the mayor of Pozuelo, informed Madrid of the threat the rest were facing. On that same July 24, a truck arrived from the police with orders to bring the rest of the religious to the General Security Office. On the next day, after filling out some forms, they were unexpectedly let go. They sought refuge in private homes. The provincial put himself at risk by going around to encourage the others and bring them communion. But in October, they were hunted down again, captured and imprisoned in the jail.
There they endured a slow martyrdom of hunger, cold, fear and threats. There are testimonies from some survivors as to how they accepted with heroic patience this difficult situation that implied the possibility of martyrdom. Among them, there reigned a spirit of charity and an atmosphere of silent prayer.
In November, the final moment in that calvary would come for most of them.
On the 7th, two of them were executed: José VEGA RIAÑO, priest and formator, age 32, and scholastic brother Serviliano RIAÑO HERRERO, age 30, who, when summoned by his executioners, was able to get near the cell of Fr. M. Martin to ask for sacramental absolution
Twenty days later it would be the turn of the 13 others. The procedure would be the same for all. There would be no formal accusation, no judgment, no defense, no explanations: only the calling of their names on powerful loudspeakers.
Francisco ESTEBAN LACAL, Provincial Superior, age 48.
Vicente BLANCO GUADILLA, Local Superior, age 54.
Gregorio ESCOBAR GARCÍA, recently ordained scholastic priest age 24.
Juan José CABALLERO RODRÍGUEZ, scholastic brother age 24.
Publio RODRÍGUEZ MOSLARES, scholastic brother, age 24.
Justo GIL PARDO, scholastic brother and deacon, age 26.
Ángel Francisco BOCOS HERNÁNDEZ, coadjutor brother, age 54.
Marcelino SÁNCHEZ FERNÁNDEZ, coadjutor brother, age 26.
José GUERRA ANDRÉS, scholastic brother, age 22.
Daniel GÓMEZ LUCAS, scholastic brother, age 20.
Justo FERNÁNDEZ GONZÁLEZ, scholastic brother, age 18.
Clemente RODRÍGUEZ TEJERINA, scholastic brother, age 18.
Eleuterio PRADO VILLARROEL, coadjutor brother, age 21.
We know that on November 28, 1936, they were taken from the jail, driven to Paracuellos de Jarama and executed there. A scholastic who was in another truck, bound elbow to elbow with Fr. Delfin MONJE, both of whom were mysteriously given a reprieve near the place of execution, said to his companion: "Father, give me general absolution and you pray the act of contrition since the end is near." The priest, 18 years later, lamented: "It"s too bad I didn"t die then! I would never again be so well prepared!"
It has not been possible to obtain direct information from eyewitnesses about the moment of execution of these 13 Servants of God. Only the gravedigger has declared: "I am completely convinced that on November 28, 1936, a priest or a religious asked the militia if he could say goodbye to all his companions and give them absolution, something he was allowed to do. Once he had finished, he said these words in a loud voice: "We know that you are killing us because we are Catholics and religious. That we are. My companions and I forgive you from the bottom of our hearts. Long live Christ the King!"" There were also members of other religious congregations, but from what this witness has told us, it was the Provincial of the Oblates who said this.
The newly ordained priest, Gregorio Escobar, had written to his family: "I"ve always been deeply touched by the stories of martyrdom that have for all time existed in the Church, and while reading them, I would feel a secret desire to have the same fate as they did. That would be the best sort of priesthood all of us Christians could desire, each of us offering to God our own body and blood as a holocaust for the faith. Wouldn"t it be great to die a martyr!"
It was evident in the diocesan process that all of them died professing the faith and forgiving their tormentors, and that, in spite of the psychological torture during their cruel captivity, none of them denied nor lost the faith, nor did they lament the fact that they had embraced a religious vocation.
For that reason, their family members, their brother Oblates, and the Christian people who know of their fidelity till death, have unanimously considered them martyrs from the very beginning and are praying to God that the Church will recognize them and present them to all the faithful as authentic Christian martyrs.
The Cause for Canonization, for which the diocesan phase ended in Madrid on January 11, 2000, is now in Rome, waiting for a decision from the Holy See to include in the List of Martyrs these 22 Oblate Servants of God.