CIRCULAR LETTER OF FR. JOSE NARLALY MINISTER GENERAL OF THE ORDER AND OF THE FAMILY
Upon the Occasion of the Beatification of
FR. ERMENEGILDO OF THE ASSUMPTION AND COMPANIONS, MARTYRS
October 13, 201
Dear brothers and sisters in the Holy Trinity,
Pope John Paul II, of blessed memory, in his letter to the Minister General of the Order (June 7, 1998), upon the occasion of the Centenary of the papal approval of our Rule and our Reform, wrote this memorable phrase: "The examples of holiness and martyrdom, which have enriched your religious family, are a confirmation of your charism ". True, the Lord has confirmed our vocation by a call to become holy in our religious family, brought to fruition by the Holy Fathers of our Order, and many brothers and sisters who have given their lives to God in martyrdom, or who have lived the Christian virtues in a profound way.
In recent years, our Order has taken a renewed interest in the impressive history of martyrdom experienced in Spain during the years 1936 to 1937. During the terrible persecution that afflicted the Church at the time, twenty-two friars of our Order died, victims of hatred against God and religion. Of these, nine have already been beatified in 2007. We remember as well, three contemplative nuns of the Order, also victims of persecution, one of whom is already beatified (Blessed Francisca of the Incarnation), a religious of the Trinitarian Sisters of Madrid, and many lay people connected to our family, including Blessed Santos Álvaro Cejudo, also beatified in 2007.
As you are already aware, on June 28, 2012, Pope Benedict XVI authorized the Congregation for the Causes of Saints to promulgate the decree of martyrdom "of the Servants of God Ermenegildo of the Assumption and five companions, of the Order of the Most Holy Trinity, killed out of hatred for the faith, in Spain in 1936", the decree was signed on July 27, 2012 by the Cardinal Prefect, Cardinal Angelo Amato. Now, we find ourselves in the months just prior to the beatification, which is set for October 13, 2013, in Tarragona, Spain. This is a great grace for the whole Church, and we are full of joy and legitimate pride for our religious family for the glory being received by these our brothers.
The martyrs, whose beatification we are preparing, are the six religious who, in 1936, made up the community of Alcázar de San Juan, in the province and diocese of Ciudad Real. Five of them were priests and one was a lay brother. Their names were: Ermenegildo of the Assumption (Hermenegildo Iza y Aregita, born on May 13, 1879 in Mendata, Vizcaya), Minister of the community; Bonaventure of Saint Catherine (Buenaventura y Gabicaechevarría Guerricabeitia, born in Ajánguiz, Vizcaya, July 14, 1887); Francis of Saint Lawrence (Francisco Euba y Gorrono, born in Amorebieta, Vizcaya, on July 25, 1889); Placido of Jesus (Plácido Camino Fernández, born in Laguna de Neglillos, León on May 6, 1890), Anthony of Jesus and Mary (Juan Antonio y Salútregui Uribarren, born in Guernica-Luno, Vizcaya, on May 2, 1902) Stephan of Saint Joseph (Esteban Ciriaco Barrenechea y Arriaga, born in Elorrio, Vizcaya, on December 26, 1880).
These six religious lived their religious life spent in prayer and the apostolate, in a daily life marked by poverty and of work. They were in direct contact with the inhabitants of Alcázar de San Juan, a city of great vitality, being a strategic center of communications. The presence of the Trinitarians was established in the seventeenth century, when the Discalced opened a house in this city, the "Heart of La Mancha", which they were forced to leave from in 1835, mandated by the general exclaustration of all religious. The Restoration of the Order in Spain began in Alcázar itself, where brothers, provided by the house of San Carlino in Rome, arrived in 1879.
The Trinitarians, in addition to providing for the spiritual needs of the people through the ministry exercised in their very busy monastery church, also opened a school for young children, which, in 1924, was converted to Official Center of Teaching, where the religious and laity were recognized as working together in an admirable way. Renowned for his work, Fr. Placido of Jesus, the director of the college, was a man of intelligence, and noted during his course of studies at the Pontifical Gregorian University. In those days there were no institutional grants to pay for teachers but the Trinitarians accept both students who could pay for their studies as well as those children from families of modest means. Amongst the students were people of very diverse political activism. The affection and gratitude towards the Trinitarians for their educational work, was unanimous among the students and their families. In addition, a detail that has drawn attention to the lives of our brothers of Alcázar, was that between Stephan, a lay brother, who daily distributed food to the poor at the entrance to the monastery, providing a meal to the poorest in the country; "different" food was not cooked for the friars and the poor, but rather they shared the same food for their meals.
The religious persecution, active in Spain since 1931, became extreme in the second half of the month of July 1936, coinciding with the beginning of the Civil War. It was an open persecution, with a cruelty that admitted few comparisons. It was directed at physically eliminating the most distinguished clergy and Catholics and at suppressing any sign of the public and private religious life of the friars.
On the morning of July 21, 1936, the monastery of the Holy Trinity was surrounded by armed militias. The religious were gathered in the square of the convent, while Father Placido, who had gone to celebrate Mass in the Hospice for the elderly, was arrested as he returned to the monastery, the militias led him in chains, pointing their guns at him, as he walked with his arms crossed. Once all six friars were regrouped, they were led into the municipal building, where they were joined with seven friars of the Franciscan community of Alcázar and a young novice of the Dominican monastery of Almagro, who was arrested at the train station. All the brothers were brought to the municipal shelter for vagrants which was located near the parish of Santa Maria. Brother Stephan fell gravely ill and, on the 23rd, was moved to the Hospice of Alcázar.
The five Trinitarian priests, the seven Franciscan friars and the Dominican novice, remained imprisoned in that shelter until the night of July 26-27. Shortly after midnight, they were awakened and made to get up, being assured that that they were being moved to another prison. Taken into two groups, they were taken to a place called "Los Sitios", outside the village, and there they were shot. We know very well the details of their martyrdom, especially because one of the Franciscan religious, Brother Isidoro, survived and was able to recount everything that happened that night. The bodies of the religious were buried in the municipal cemetery of Alcázar de San Juan, and, in 1962 they were exhumed and transferred to the conventual churches of the Trinitarian and Franciscan monasteries which since then have been their resting place.
Brother Stephan of Saint Joseph remained in the hospice until September 1st, upon which date he was conducted to the prison. There he was subjected to severe ill-treatment, his moral suffering was so great that his dark beard changed to gray in a few days, a phenomenon that was observed during the captivity of St. Thomas More, and which merited the attention of the Congregation for the Causes of the Saints. He suffered martyrdom on September 12 and, while there are two different versions on the site of his death, it is agreed that he died of gunshots. The more credible account indicates that his body was thrown into the entrance of an abandoned mine, in the district of Camuñas (Toledo).
We want to call attention briefly upon three aspects that should be considered about these six Blessed Trinitarians: their love for Christ, the witness of fraternal love and the suffering for the faith.
Our Blessed martyrs were consecrated entirely to the Holy Trinity by their solemn profession. Yes, all of us religious recite the formula of profession, the words "until death", thereby indicating the perpetuity of our vows. However, in the case of the Martyrs, these words take on, with their martyrdom, a new meaning: even to give one’s life. There is no doubt that our brothers were killed simply because they were religious. They gave their lives as a response to the love for Christ, confessing as well, like St. Paul, that the Lord Jesus "loved me and gave himself for me" (Gal 2: 20). The time of persecution and imprisonment, was an impressive testimony of union with the Lord: those days spent praying, sometimes in silence, sometimes singing their prayers, in chorus or a low voice, confessing to each other. At the supreme hour, some of them (especially Blessed Francis of Saint Lawrence), cried out with vigor and enthusiasm the martyrs praise: "Long live Christ the King!" This testified to and gave the fullest sense of the act of martyrdom, confessing their love, unconditional and complete, to the Lord.
The second aspect is that of the heroic fraternal love of our Martyred brothers. At least three of them could ave escaped death: Fr. Placido, who was offered his life by those in the highest offices who attributed to him their academic preparation; the young Fr. Anthony, who received the visit of his relative who wanted to take him to Bilbao, and Brother Stephan, who was offered the job as cook for the militants. But all three refused these possibilities, stating that they wanted to run the same fate as their brothers. We Trinitarian religious cannot stop confessing that the fraternal life in community is an essential and indispensable part of our institute. The communal witness of our Blessed Martyrs, certainly heroic and exciting, should encourage us to a firm commitment to continual conversion and to a more authentic and higher quality of the fraternal life, knowing that this is our vocation in the Church Furthermore, the binding in the martyrdom of our brothers of the habit with the sons of Saint Francis and Saint Dominic, should make us reflect on the call to an "inter-congregational culture”, which we reflected upon at the last General Chapter, realizing that this communion between various institutes witnesses to the "Trinitarian communion" is a mission especially precious and worthy of our time.