More than 200 20th-century French and Spanish martyrs religious leaders have praised as witnesses to hope and the Gospel were beatified in their respective countries Dec. 13.
According to Vatican News, diocesan priest Father Manuel Izquierdo Izquierdo and 58 companions, as well as Father Antonio Montañés Chiquero and 64 companions, were killed between 1936 and 1937 during the Spanish Civil War. The two groups of Spanish martyrs were beatified during a Mass celebrated in Jaén.
During the civil war, “Revolutionaries moved by anti-religious and anti-Christian sentiments massacred numerous priests, religious, and laypeople, and looted churches and places of worship,” Vatican News reported.
Fr. Manuel was particularly mistreated and tortured, as was another priest, Fr. Manuel Valdivia Chica, whose hands were cut off before he was killed. Vatican News reported that the priests, including Fr. Antonio, remained faithful to their parishes and congregations and stayed with them despite the persecution, even asking to be killed last so they could hear confessions until the end.
In a pastoral letter, Jaén Bishop Sebastián Chico Martínez called the martyrs “witnesses of hope” as the Jubilee Year of Hope draws to a close. He praised them for their examples of faith.
In Paris, diocesan priest Fr. Raymond Cayré, Franciscan Brother Gérard-Martin Cendrier, seminarian Roger Vallée, layman Jean Mestre, and 46 companions — martyred primarily in concentration camps during World War II — were beatified. Most of the French martyrs were part of the Young Christian Workers movement. They were also part of the “Mission Saint Paul,” which Vatican News called “a form of clandestine chaplaincy set up by French bishops to provide spiritual assistance to young people requisitioned for the Compulsory Labor Service.”
“Many priests, religious and lay people belonging to Catholic associations covertly followed French workers sent to German territory to provide them with moral and spiritual support,” the outlet reported. “As a result, they were arrested for subversive activity against the Third Reich, tortured and put to death mainly in the concentration camps of Buchenwald, Mauthausen, Dachau or Neuengamme.”
Pope Leo celebrated the beatifications during his Dec. 14 Angelus address, saying, “Let us praise the Lord for these martyrs, courageous witnesses to the Gospel, persecuted and killed for remaining close to their people and faithful to the Church!”
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