These martyrs were 1st Blesseds of new millennium

The largest group of Spanish martyrs beatified by John Paul II are recognized on September 22. The Polish pope was moved particularly by three of their stories.

On September 22, the Church celebrates 233 martyrs of the Spanish civil war.

They were Dominicans, Jesuits, Franciscans, diocesan priests, laypeople, elderly people, young people. An 83-year-old woman was killed with her four daughters. The widow of one of the martyrs was at the beatification.

In his homily for the beatification, John Paul II noted the diversity of the group, including the fact that the first Blesseds of Uruguay were included:

The list of those who are being raised to the glory of the altars today for confessing their faith and dying for it is long. There are 38 priests from the Archdiocese of Valencia, with a large group of men and women, members of Catholic Action, also from Valencia; 18 Dominicans and two priests from the Archdiocese of Zaragoza; four Friars Minor and six Friars Minor Conventual; 12 Friars Minor Capuchin with five Capuchin women religious and a Discalced Augustinian; 11 Jesuits with a young lay man; 30 Salesians and two Daughters of Mary Help of Christians; 19 Third Order Capuchins of Our Lady of Sorrows with a laywoman cooperator; one Priest of the Sacred Heart of Jesus (Dehonian); the chaplain of La Salle College of Bonanova, Barcelona, with five Brothers of the Christian Schools; 24 Carmelite Sisters of Charity; one Servite Sister; six Sisters of the Pious Schools with two laywomen cooperators from Uruguay, who are the first blesseds of this Latin American country; two Little Sisters of the Abandoned Elderly, three Third Order Capuchins of the Holy Family; a Claretian Missionary Sister; and lastly, Francisco Castelló y Aleu, a young member of Catholic Action in Lleida.

3 particularly moving stories

As well, John Paul II pointed out briefly some of the stories of the new martyrs, from the very old to the very young.

How can we not be deeply moved at hearing the accounts of their martyrdom? The elderly María Teresa Ferragud was arrested at the age of 83 with her four contemplative religious daughters. On 25 October 1936, the feast of Christ the King, she asked to accompany her daughters to martyrdom and to be executed last so that she might encourage them to die for the faith. Her death made such an impression on her executioners that they exclaimed: “This is a true saint.”
No less edifying was the witness of the other martyrs, such as the young Francisco Castelló y Aleu, 22 years old, a chemist by profession and a member of Catholic Action. Realizing the gravity of the situation, he did not want to hide but to offer his youth as a loving sacrifice to God and his brethren; he left us three letters, an example of strength, generosity, serenity and happiness, written a few moments before his death to his sisters, his spiritual director, and his fiancée.
Or the newly ordained priest, Germán Gozalbo, 23 years old, who was shot only two months after celebrating his first Mass, after endless humiliations and abuses.

Individual features not lost in large group

The next day, the Polish Poniff noted that the beatification “was the first to take place in the new century and the new millennium.” And, he said,

Yesterday’s beatification was the largest of my Pontificate. Indeed, 233 martyrs were raised to the altar.
Such a noteworthy number, however, does not make us forget their individual features. They each have a personal history, a name and surname of their own, circumstances which make each one a model of life that becomes even more eloquent with their death freely accepted as the supreme proof of fidelity to Christ and his Church.

More and more

More and more of the Spanish martyrs of the civil war have been beatified or canonized in the last quarter century.

As of November 2023, there are 2,127 Spanish martyrs who have been beatified; 11 of them being canonized. For some 2,000 additional martyrs, the beatification process is underway.

Benedict XVI beatified the largest group, 498 of them in October 2007.

In his homily, John Paul II addressed a prayer to Our Lady, that we might follow the martyrs’ example:

May Mary, Queen of Martyrs, help us to listen to and imitate her Son. Let us ask her, who accompanied her divine Son in his earthly life and remained faithful to him at the foot of the Cross, to teach us to be faithful to Christ at every moment without losing heart in the face of difficulties; may she grant us the same strength with which the martyrs confessed their faith.