The numbers are stunning: 4,184 secular Catholic priests, 2,365 religious order priests and brothers, 296 nuns, along with innumerable Catholic laity, were murdered by Republican forces at the beginning of the Spanish Civil War. The worst persecution of the Church in history over such a small time period. Their deaths were attended by countless indignities, up to and including torture and rape. In the face of this, apostasy was virtually unknown, Catholics refusing to buy their lives by renouncing God. If we have a fraction of their courage and faith, happy indeed will we be, no matter what befalls us in this vale of tears.
Saint of the Day Quote: Martyrs of the Spanish Civil War
- Donald R. McClarey
Donald R. McClarey
Cradle Catholic. Active in the pro-life movement since 1973. Father of three, one in Heaven, and happily married for 43 years. Small town lawyer and amateur historian. Former president of the board of directors of the local crisis pregnancy center for a decade.
Will there be bravery and blood?
Or will there be none to oppose the godless, but More and Fisher?
I fear the evil of the 21st Century is about to say to the 20th Century “hold my beer.”
The devil is jealous of God and the joy that God bestows.
Someone once told me that aborted children go straight to heaven. I relied “that makes a murderer of you.”
The Red Terror. Alas for the persecutors, many found out the consequences in this life. May they have repented before facing the eternal ones.
Few people today know how close Spain came to being Communist. Franco and the Nationalists may not have been El Cid on a white horse, but fortunately for the country, he was close enough. Even today the spiritual successors of the reds sit in their parliament, hoping for control of the government.