P. Juan María de la Cruz, scj

Martyr of the Religious Persecution during the Spanish Civil War

 (1936-1939)

"God's Blessings! Let all things be done according to the divine will. I am very happy to be able to suffer with Him, because he suffered so much for me, a poor sinner." (Letter from Fr. Mendez to Fr. Philippe, a few days before his death).

The life and martyrdom of Fr. Mendez, scj, introduces us to a dark chapter in modern Spanish history -- the religious persecution during the Civil War from 1936 to 1939. The civil war between the Republican and Nationalist forces claimed 1,200,000 victims of which 750,000 were civilians.

Mariano García Méndez was born on September 25, 1891, in San Esteban de los Patos in the province of Avila, the firstborn of 15 children. After his seminary training he was ordained priest for the diocese of Avila, and worked there in several parishes until the end of 1925. His deep desire to lead a life of greater perfection led him toward religious life, but the first tentative steps in this direction failed due to his poor health.

On his regular visits to Madrid as an army reservist he would make Eucharist Adoration in the chapel of a congregation of sisters formed in the spirituality of reparation. Through Mother Maria del Senor del Gran Poder he was told about the Padres Reparadores (the name by which SCJs are known in Spain) and introduced to Fr. Wilhelm Zicke, scj. After his novitiate at Novelda (Alicante) Mendez made his first profession on October 31, 1926 and took the religious name of Fr. Juan María de la Cruz. Enjoying limited success as teacher in the minor seminary at Novelda, he became an itinerant priest in 1929 to beg for money in the villages and market towns and to look for young students to direct to the congregation's minor seminary.

In Spain this period was marked by economic, political and social instability which also affected the Catholic Church from within. The call for reform from peasants and a growing working class fell on the deaf ears of ecclesiastics. The end of the 19th century was marked by a strong current of anticlericalism among the intelligentsia which then spread to the general populace and was marked by militant acts, which at times became even violent against the Church. For the most part the Spanish hierarchy was very defensive and lent its support at the outset to a dictatorial and nationalistic regime. After the fall of the monarchy and the proclamation of the republic in 1931 the control and destruction of every Church influence became one of the top priorities of the leftist government. The 1933 elections brought Catholics to power in a right wing government which proved just as ineffective as its predecessor in introducing the needed reforms to solve the many problems facing Spain. In 1936 the leftists once again gained power. The new government tolerated and supported the violent persecution of the Church and clergy, many of whom were the first to be killed in the Civil War which broke out on July 18, 1936. On both sides this war was fought not to defeat the enemy but to annihilate them, and as such there was an explosion of anticlericlism which had been building for the last 100 years leading to a systematic persecution and assassination of priests, seminarians, religious and the laity, as well as the destruction of many church buildings.

The historian Giaccomo Martini, sj, seeking to explain the outbreak of violence against the Church saw it as the result of the congruence of three factors: Spanish anticlericalism, the backwardness of the Spanish Church, and the radical tendencies found in Spanish history (cf. Martini, Storia della Chiesa, vol. 4, 1998, p.184). This anticlericalism had reached such a fevered pitch that it attempted to eliminate all signs of Christianity from public and private life, to such a degree that Spanish Communists during this era thought they were doing a better job of destroying religion than their Russian counterparts.

In this context on July 23, 1936, Fr. Juan traveled to Valencia seeking to find refuge with one of the congregation's benefactors. "While traveling from the train station to the home of Señora Pilar he passed by the church of 'de los Juanes' in the center of the city. He was horrified by 'a horrible spectacle' -- his own words -- when he saw men ripping apart the church interior and preparing to burn down the church. He could not stand by in silence. Fr. Juan did not hide his disdain at seeing the church torched. When the evildoers said to each other: 'He's a reactionary!' He responded 'No, I am a priest!' The republicans thereupon arrested him and took him to Modelo di Valencia jail. Afterwards, witnesses recalled that Fr. Juan led an exemplary priestly life in prison. He remained faithful to his religious practices, cared for other's pastoral needs as he prepared for martyrdom. On the night of August 23-24, 1936 together with nine other prisoners Fr. Juan was taken south of Valencia to be shot. On August 24th the bodies of the victims were thrown into a common grave in the cemetery of Silla" (Bothe, 20th Century SCJ Martyrs, p 14).

In 1940 Fr. Juan's remains were disinterred and later transferred to Puente la Reina (Navarre). In 1959 the first steps in the beatification process were begun. On March 11, 2001, Pope John Paul II will declare him blessed along with other Spanish Martyrs.

There are many other unknown Spanish Catholics who, like Fr. Juan, did not hide their religious convictions or faith in order to save their lives. In the persecution during the Civil War between 1936 and 1939, 13 bishops, 4,184 diocesan priests, 2,365 religious men and 283 religious women were killed. The number of Catholic laity murdered remains unknown.

Bishop Montini, the future Pope Paul VI, wrote in 1938: "The Holy Spirit comes down to enlighten and console the conscience of true Christians, those we call martyrs of the Church, and so even today  the action is repeated for those Spanish Catholics who, rather than yielding to the injustices of the enemies of the faith, have preferred to endure martyrdom." (Riccardi, Il Secolo del Martirio, p. 347).

[cf. B. Bothe, Märtyrer der Herz-Jesu-Priester, p. 12-15; Cárcel Ortí, Buio sull'altare, Città Nuova 1999; A. Riccardi, Il secolo del martirio, Mondadori 2000, p. 328-348; Giaccomo Martini, Storia della Chiesa/4, Morcelliana 1998]