11 Nov 2021
The beginning of November marked the feast day of the seven MSC martyrs of Canet de Mar, who were the first members of the MSC congregation to be declared blessed, in May 2017.
November 6th is the feast day of the seven martyrs, namely Fr Antonio Arribas, Fr Abundio MartĂn, Fr JosĂ© Vergara, Fr Josep-Oriol Issern, Br Gumersindo GĂłmez, Br JĂ©sus Moreno, and Br JosĂ© del Almo. These seven MSCs lived and worked in the Pequeña Obra in Barcelona in the 1930s; this was a minor seminary in Canet de Mar, where they worked with 65 young people on their spiritual journey to religious life and priesthood. The religious persecution brought about in the course of the Spanish Civil War saw these seven men brought to a cruel and brutal death, murdered for their faith and their devotion to the Lord’s work.
The Spanish Civil War began on July 18th 1936, and just three days later, on July 21st, the parish church of Canet de Mar was set on fire and burned to the ground. On the afternoon of the same day, an armed group approached the seminary and demanded that the community there leave the premises with immediate effect, under the orders of the People’s Committee. Following the command, the community were brought to a park nearby, located near the Shrine of Mercy, and they were kept under close surveillance there for a fortnight.
On August 3rd, the seminary director received a warning from a member of the People’s Committee, forewarning him of the danger to come. The Committee were planning a mass shooting, with the exception of children and elderly priests. In the face of immediate and severe danger, the religious leaders had to leave the seminarians, forming two groups for escape, one of four and the other of seven.
Fleeing under the cover of darkness, the group of seven MSCs travelled towards the French border in great fear and peril. While they were fortunate to receive help from several farmsteads, they travelled in hiding, through unfamiliar territory, without a supply of food or water and through all weathers.
Eight weeks later, on September 28th, the group arrived at the farmhouse of Mont-Ros at nightfall. One of the group approached the house to ask for directions, looking for information about the correct road to take to the French border. Following the instructions they had been given, they had travelled just over a kilometre before they were apprehended by a group of members of the People’s Committee. Their whereabouts had been betrayed, and they were immediately captured and taken to Committee headquarters in a schoolhouse.
At around 10.00pm that night, the MSC group were handed over to the Committee of Sant Joan les Fonts, Girona. A woman in a neighbouring property saw the MSCs as they awaited their fate, pacing in the hallway and praying the Rosary. The following afternoon, the MSCs were removed from the schoolhouse before a watching crowd, bound two by two, with the remaining individual walking alone with his hands tied behind his back. They were silent, and largely appeared to be at peace, although one of the younger MSCs was in tears. The waiting crowd also remained silent in the face of such dignity, though one of the Committee members railed against the Pope, the church, and the clergy.
The prisoners were transferred onto a bus, which came to a halt on the banks of the River Ter. Several men working in the nearby fields saw the bus stop, and four men, bound in pairs, were removed and brought towards a nearby slope. These witnesses were able to hear loud arguing, followed by gunshots, and saw the four bodies fall at the same time. The final three men were then removed from the bus, to suffer the same fate.
“They clung so closely to Christ that they died carrying in their hands crucifixes, bibles, medals, bearing witness to their faith,” reflects the Ametur MSC Facebook page.
Men from the nearby town of Serinyà , known as good Christians, were compelled by the People’s Committee to carry the seven bodies to the town cemetery, where the MSC martyrs were buried in two tombs. They remained at rest here until March 1940, when their bodies were exhumed and brought to the cemetery of Canet de Mar, located close to the MSC community. Their remains now rest in one of the chapels of the Shrine to Our Lady of the Sacred Heart in Barcelona, following their beatification in 2017.
In the course of their lives, and through their dignity and devotion in death, the MSC martyrs of Canet de Mar lived and died in the full and true sense of the motto of the Society of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart: “May the Sacred Heart of Jesus be everywhere loved”.
MSC Martyrs of Canet de Mar (Image via @ameturmsc on Facebook.)
MSC Martyrs of Canet de Mar (Image via @ameturmsc on Facebook.)
Images via the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart Australia website and the Ametur MSC Facebook page.
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