5 Murcian Civil War martyrs beatified

5 Murcians were amongst the 522 priests and nuns beatified on Sunday

Five twentieth-century Murcianos were beatified in Tarragona on Sunday as part of a group of 522 twentieth-century Catholic martyrs.
The five honoured were diocesan priests Pedro Sánchez Barba and Fulgencio Martínez García, Franciscans Buenaventura Muñoz Martínez and Antonio Faúndez López, and Leopoldo de Francisco Pío, a member of the religious brotherhood serving San Juan de Dios. All five were assassinated during the Spanish Civil War.

( Click to see full report in Spanish national news)

During the early part of the Civil War, churches were burned, and thousands of priceless statues and religious artefacts destroyed. Following the war a vast restoration programme replaced the artefacts and restored churches, which is why so many of the statues in provincial areas are new. Some pieces survived, rescued by the devout and hidden for the duration of the Civil War, whilst other still bear the vestiges of smoke damage when they were pulled off the bonfires by those who couldn´t bear to see them burn.

It has been estimated that 500,000 people died during the 1936-1939 Spanish Civil  War, with mass killings on both sides, amongst them thousands of priests and nuns, executed by left-wing Republicans who were strongly against the support given to Franco by the church. After the war, some 50,000 people are believed to have been executed in reprisal killings by nationalist forces.

The latest beatification ceremony was held in Tarragona because as many as 147 martyrdoms occurred during the last century in the arch-diocese. The city also has a long tradition of Christian faith and martyrs: according to ecclesiastical historians this goes back to the year 259, when Bishop Fructuoso and his deacons Augurio and Eulogio were martyred in the Roman amphitheatre in the city, which probably makes them the first Hispanic martyrs in the Christian faith.

Of the 1,523 twentieth-century Spanish martyrs so far officially recognized, eleven have been canonized.

Image: Mass held the night before the beatification inside the cathedral in Tarragona. Copyrighted image, not for full or partial reproduction. Misa de Vísperas, oficiada por Monseñor Don Jaume Pujol Balcells, arzobispo metropolitano y primado de Tarragona, y celebrada esta tarde en la Catedral tarraconense como prólogo a la beatificación de 522 mártires mañana en la ciudad. Efe Jaume Sellart