On March 12, 1622, Pope Gregory XV elevated to the dignity of the altars Francis Xavier, Ignatius of Loyola, Teresa of Jesus, Isidore Labrador and Philip Neri. The citizens of Rome, with a certain irony, said that day that the Pope had canonized four Spaniards and a saint. And the fact is that Spain has been throughout history, and continues to be, a fertile land in which great saints have flourished and illuminated the life of the Church.
A rigorous and exhaustive process
God's dream for every Christian is holiness, to live and make transparent the divine life in one's own life. And the Church, who is holy, never ceases to beget children who live in holiness, providing them at every moment with superabundant means to attain this goal. From among all her holy children, she proposes some as models and intercessors for all God's people through the solemn act of canonization.
This act is preceded by a long and meticulous process, in which the life, death and reputation for sanctity after death of each of the Servants of God who are proposed as candidates for canonization are carefully investigated. The process begins in the diocese in which the Servant of God died, gathering as much information as possible, both documentary and testimonial, about the person and the historical circumstances in which his or her life unfolded. Once all this information has been compiled, it is sent to the Congregation for the Causes of Saints in Rome, where it is studied in detail by groups of historians, theologians, bishops and cardinals, before a vote is taken, which is presented to the Pope, the sole judge in the Causes of Saints, for his approval of the publication of the corresponding decree that allows either the beatification of a Servant of God or the canonization of a Blessed.
In the case of martyrdom, when it is demonstrated that the Servant of God suffered a violent death in hatred of the faith, beatification is immediately permitted. In cases other than martyrdom (by way of virtue or of a life given in charity), it is necessary that before beatification the Pope approves, even after an exhaustive process, a miracle attributed to the intercession of the Servant of God. For the canonization of a Blessed, whether or not he is a martyr, a new miracle is necessary.
Spaniards near the altars
Since 2018, Pope Francis has authorized the approval of several decrees of martyrdom, virtues and miracles related to processes of beatification and canonization of Spanish Servants of God. In addition to the miracle attributed to the intercession of Mother Nazaria Ignacia March Mesa, for which she was canonized on October 14, and the miracle that will allow the beatification of Guadalupe Ortiz de Landázuri in Madrid on May 18, the Holy Father has recognized the martyrdom of the already beatified Spaniards Esther Paniagua and Caridad Álvarez, Augustinian Missionary Nuns beatified on December 8, 2018 in Algiers; of Ángel Cuartas Cristóbal and 8 companions, seminarians from Oviedo; of Mariano Mullerat y Soldevila, layman and father of a family; and of María del Carmen Lacaba Andía and 13 companions, Franciscan Conceptionists.
And together with these martyrdoms, the virtues lived to an extraordinary degree by two Discalced Carmelites, Mother María Antonia de Jesús and Sister Arcángela Badosa Cuatrecasas; by Sister Justa Domínguez de Vidaurreta e Idoy, Daughter of Charity; Francisca de las Llagas de Jesús Martí y Valls, professed nun of the Second Order of St. Francis; Manuel García Nieto, Jesuit priest; Don Doroteo Hernández Vera, diocesan priest and founder of the Evangelical Crusade; and Alexia González Barros, a young laywoman of 14 years of age.
"A huge cloud of witnesses surrounding us."Our brothers, who have grown and matured in holiness in different states and circumstances of life, very close to us in geography and in time, and who continue to show us, in the words of Pope Francis in his last exhortation Gaudete et exsultate, "holiness, the most beautiful face of the Church".
The servant is not more than his Lord
As stated by Andrea Riccardi in the recently published Spanish edition of the book The century of martyrs (Encounter, p. 422), "The martyrdom of many Christians is not only an episode of the terrible war that has bloodied Spain, leaving deep wounds. There is a particularity that cannot be forgotten or smoothed over: the martyrs were killed because they were Christians and ministers of worship, expressions of a Church, whose presence had to be erased from Spanish society by violent and rapid methods.". There are tens of thousands of victims who died as Christians during the religious persecution in Spain in the 1930s.
Among them are the martyred seminarians of Oviedo, beatified in the Holy Basilica Church Metropolitan Cathedral of San Salvador on March 9 by Pope Francis' representative, Cardinal Angelo Becciu, Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints. In his homily he pointed out that they were young people "from simple Christian families and from a humble social class, children of the land of Asturias"., "They were enthusiastic, cordial and devoted to the Seminary lifestyle of prayer, study, fraternal sharing and apostolic commitment. They were always determined to follow the call of Jesus, despite the climate of religious intolerance, being aware of the insidiousness and dangers they would face. They knew how to persevere with particular fortitude until the last moment of their lives"..
They were between 18 and 25 years old and were eagerly preparing themselves for the priesthood, for the dedication of their lives in pastoral ministry. However, the Lord had prepared for them a more radical surrender, the shedding of blood to bear witness to their Lord and Master. One of them, Blessed Sixto Alonso Hevia, asked his parents: "If something happens to me, you have to forgive.". It is the response of the martyr to the hatred that takes his life.
On March 23, Cardinal Becciu presided, in the cathedral of Tarragona, the beatification of the martyr Mariano Mullerat i Soldevila, a layman, husband, father of five daughters and beloved doctor in Arbeca and the surrounding towns, shot on August 13, 1936. A courageous witness of the faith, who days before being arrested and killed, in the climate of tension and religious persecution that was palpable in the streets, and aware of the danger he was in as a prominent Catholic, answered a neighbor who asked him if he did not fear for his life: "Peret, trust in God! And, if we see each other no more, see you in heaven!".
God willing, the Prefect of the Causes of Saints will visit our country once again for the beatification of Maria del Carmen Lacaba Andia and 13 companions of the Order of the Franciscan Conceptionists, which will take place on Saturday, June 22, in the Cathedral of the Almudena in Madrid. A new event of grace that will allow to venerate as martyrs these 14 brave women, who did not cower before threats, beatings or torture, not even before death itself. Ten of them, expelled from their monastery in Madrid, took refuge in the house of some benefactors, in an apartment on Francisco Silvela Street. Denounced by one of the doorkeepers of a nearby building, they suffered daily torture, humiliation and humiliation at the hands of the militia for several weeks until they were shot on November 8, 1936. One of them, Sister Asunción Monedero, was paralyzed. Two other of the future blessed belonged to the monastery of El Pardo (Madrid), from where they were expelled. Also taking refuge in the house of a friendly couple, they were discovered on August 23 and later shot.
The other two nuns in the group belonged to the Escalona monastery in Toledo. They were transferred to a prison in Madrid where they were tortured and shot in October. The people of Madrid are so devoted to these martyrs that the old Sagasti Street, where the monastery was located, was renamed Conceptionist Martyrs Street.
Love to the extreme in ordinary life
Pope Francis has declared 7 Spaniards venerable since the beginning of 2018 to date. This affirms that each of these Servants of God have lived in an extraordinary way the theological virtues (faith, hope and charity), the cardinal virtues (justice, prudence, fortitude and temperance), and the virtues of poverty, obedience, chastity and humility, according to their condition and state in life. If a miracle attributed to their intercession is demonstrated, they can then be proclaimed blessed.
The story of Venerable Mother Maria Antonia of Jesus (1700-1760) is a clear proof that God has a unique and unrepeatable path of holiness for each person. Married and mother of two children, she felt how the desire to love the Lord grew stronger and stronger in her heart. A woman to whom the Lord gave great mystical graces, she was a teacher of young people who joined her, desiring to lead the life of prayer and penance that they saw in her. She founded the Discalced Carmel of Santiago de Compostela. The Venerable Francisca de las Llagas de Jesús Martí y Valls (1860-1899) also received great mystical graces, which she always lived with profound humility in the hiddenness of her convent in Badalona. Before she was 39 years old, God had made her grow in an extraordinary way the spirit of penance, reparation for the sins of the world, and an exquisite charity towards her sisters.
Venerable Sister Arcángela (1878-1918), a Discalced Carmelite, whose fame for charity and service to the sick continues to this day, is another Spanish nun whose virtues have been recognized by Pope Francis. During the nights she would get up up up to eight times to attend to the most needy. Even the day before her death, despite being practically consumed by tuberculosis, she got up just in case the sick she was attending to needed anything. Charity is an unmistakable sign of holiness, as in the case of the Venerable Sister Justa Domínguez de Vidaurreta e Idoy (1875-1958), Provincial Superior of Spain of the Daughters of Charity, who dedicated her life to the formation of religious, to the missionary expansion of the Congregation and, in short, to making present the love of Christ towards the poor and needy, following the Vincentian charism.
Two priests have been recognized in recent months as venerable. Father Manuel Nieto SJ (1894-1974), was an excellent spiritual master, and those who knew him agree on the profound mark that this priest of humble appearance left on their lives. His epitaph reads: "Life of continual prayer. Penance for love of Christ. Generous dedication to the poor. Priestly heart.". And Don Doroteo Hernandez Vera (1901-1991), founder of the Secular Institute Evangelical Crusade. He wrote, among many other things, some lines that without him knowing it, would turn out to be autobiographical: "If we are to be apostles, the first thing we have to do is to live what we teach. Incarnate what we are going to teach. That is why Jesus Christ first worked and then taught.".
And to top it all off, shortly before the Synod on young people was held in Rome, Alexia González Barros was declared venerable. At the age of 14, she showed the world the maturity of knowing how to joyfully accept the ordeal of an illness for love of the Lord.
Much more could be written about all these brothers of ours, so close to being declared Blessed. But let these brief outlines serve to show how holiness continues to be present in the life of the Church on pilgrimage in Spain. The upcoming beatifications and the Servants of God we have presented are proof of this. And who knows if in a few years' time the person who is now reading these pages will not also be among these witnesses of faith, hope and charity. Why not? n
Episcopal Delegate for the Causes of the Saints of the Archdiocese of Madrid
