Saturday, May 25, 2013

Wartime Blesseds

Carmelo Maria Moyano Linares

Friday, 04 January 2013 20:10 Last Updated on Tuesday, 08 January 2013 20:24 Written by James Monti

Priest, Religious, and Martyr (1891-1936) [September 22]

Crispolo Moyano Linares, of Villaralto, Spain, made his profession as religious of the Carmelite Order at the age of sixteen, taking the name Carmelo. Seven years later, during his theology studies in Rome, he was ordained to the priesthood. After returning to Spain, Father Carmelo served for six years as provincial of the Carmelite provincfe of Betica. He was remembered for his apostolic zeal, his humility, his prudence, and his constancy in the labors of his priestly ministry. During the three years of the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939), nearly ten thousand Catholics were martyred for their faith, two thirds of whom were priests and religious. Father Carmelo was among those slain, put to death by Communist militants on September 23, 1936, at the age of forty-five.

--- James Monti

Wladyslaw Miegon

Friday, 04 January 2013 20:05 Last Updated on Tuesday, 08 January 2013 20:24 Written by James Monti

 Priest and Martyr (1892-1942) [September 15]

A native of Poland, Wladyslaw Miegon was ordained a priest at the age of twenty-two. He served as a military chaplain of the Polish Navy, remembered for his piety and charity. In the fall of 1939, the Nazis invaded Poland, subjecting this largely Catholic country to the aggression of a regime that in pursuit of its evil agenda sought to destroy the Catholic Church. It was shortly after Nazi troops entered Poland that Father Miegon was arrested. He was soon released, but fearing that wounded Polish sailors captured by the Nazis would be left without spiritual solace, Father Miegon voluntarily returned to prison so that he might minister to them. This led to his deportation to the German concentration camp of Buchenwald. In 1942 he was transferred to the death camp of Dachau. Months of maltreatment, starvation, and illness let to Father Miegon’s death on September 15, 1942, two days after his fiftieth birthday.

--- James Monti

Pedro Sanchez Barba and Bonaventura Munoz Martinez

Friday, 04 January 2013 20:02 Last Updated on Tuesday, 08 January 2013 20:25 Written by James Monti

Religious and Martyrs (1936) [September 1]

Pedro Sanchez Barba, of Llano de Brujas, Spain, was ordained a diocesan priest at the age of twenty-four. Enrolled in the Franciscan Third Order, he actively promoted the Catholic Action lay apostolate and wrote on social issues. Bonaventura Munoz Martinez, of Santa Cruz, Spain, entered the Franciscan Order at the age of seventeen. Four years later, in 1934, Brother Bonaventura began his theological studies. The persecution waged against the Catholic Church by secularists in Spain that began in 1931 with the torching of churches drastically intensified in late July of 1936 following the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War. Brother Bonaventura initially fled to escape the violence. But upon learning that a member of his own family, a married brother, had been captured by Communist militants, he surrendered himself to the Communists that he might die in place of his brother. On September 4, 1936, Brother Bonaventura was put to death together with Father Sanchez, the latter having been targeted by the militants for being a priest.

---James Monti

Casper Vaz and Mary Vaz

Friday, 04 January 2013 19:59 Last Updated on Tuesday, 08 January 2013 20:25 Written by James Monti

Martyrs (1627) [August 27]

A native of Korea separated from his family and homeland by war, Caspar Vaz was raised in the Catholic faith by a Portuguese citizen of the South China Sea port of Macao. Caspar subsequently moved to Japan, where he met and married a Japanese Catholic girl named Mary. Both Caspar and Mary were enrolled in the Franciscan Third Order. At that time Japanese Catholics were being persecuted by the country’s pagan regime. Caspar and Mary were compelled to sell their home after they were accused of sheltering missionaries under their roof. Caspar then purchased under an assumed name a seaside home in Nagasaki, where over the years that followed he and Mary secretly resumed sheltering missionaries. In May of 1627 Japanese soldiers raided the Vaz home, where they discovered the Franciscan priest Blessed Francis of Saint Mary and a Franciscan brother, Blessed Bartholomew Laurel. The two religious and their hosts, Caspar and Mary, were arrested. They and ten other Catholics were executed on August 17, 1627. Caspar was burned to death and Mary was beheaded. The 2004 Roman Martyrology commemorates these martyrs on August 27.

---James Monti

Luis Urbano Lanaspa

Friday, 04 January 2013 19:56 Last Updated on Tuesday, 08 January 2013 20:25 Written by James Monti

Priest, Religious, and Martyr (1882-1936) [August 25]

Luis Urbano Lanaspa, of Saragossa, Spain, made his religious profession in the Dominican Order at the age of seventeen and was later ordained a priest. Learned in both theology and physics, Father Urbano served as a professor in Valencia. He is described as "a man of extraordinary ability" who excelled as a zealous and erudite homilist. The author of several books, Father Urbano founded and edited the journals Rosas y Espinas and Contemporanea. He was also remembered as vocal advocate of the rights of the poor. Father Urbano was serving as vicar provincial of the Dominicans’ Aragon Province when the Spanish Civil War began in July of 1936. As a prominent Catholic priest, religious, and scholar, he was targeted by adherents of the anti-Catholic and murderous Popular Front. Father Urbano was put to death on August 25, 1936, at the age of fifty-four.

---James Monti

More Articles...

Page 1 of 13

Start
Prev
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
Next
End

Popular Sections

Rights

The prohibition of murder does not abrogate the right to render an unjust aggressor unable to inflict harm. Legitimate defense is a grave duty for whoever is responsible for the lives of others or the common good.

--CCC 2321

501.c.3 Tax Exempt

We have been granted tax-exempt status as a 501.c.3 corporation. Your generous contributions enable our work to continue.

Copyright Info

© 2011, MissionCapodanno.org. All Rights Reserved.

Visual Edge Design and HyperDo Media

Connect to Mission Capodanno