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Martyrs of Hospitality
 While
Brother Richard Pampuri attained holiness through the ordinary
activities of life, a good number of Brother of St. John of
God had to face the ordeals of martyrdom before attaining
the glory of Heaven.
In the golden annals of the Order are listed martyrs in Belgium, Poland,
Columbia, Chile, Brazil, Philippines and specially in Spain where during the
Civil War of 1936, ninety-eight Brothers were killed due to hatred towards
their faith.
The process of beatification was successfully terminated for a group of
seventy-one Brothers whose martyrdom happened in Spain. Pope John Paul II set
October 25, 1992 as the date for their solemn beatification in the Vatican.
Among those seventy-one Blessed, there are seven young natives of Colombia who
after their Profession had been sent to Spain to complete their formation. In
the history of the church, they are the first from their country to be
venerated in church. Consequently, it is worth mentioning their names: Arturo
Ayala, Esteban Maya, Eugenio Ramirez, Gaspar Paez, Juan Bautista Velazquez,
Melquiades Ramirez, Ruben Lopez. They were shot in Barcelona on August 9, 1936.
Also worth mentioning among those Blessed martyrs is a Spanish one, Brother
Guillermo Llop, who lived for ten years in the Roman Province as Master of
Novices and later as Prior in Frascati, near Rome.
Brother Guillermo was born in Spain in 1880. At the age of eighteen, he received
the habit of the Order. He was with the Roman Province from 1912 to 1922,
distinguishing himself specially in the care of the wounded in the First World
War. In 1922, he went together with other Brothers to revive the Order in
Chile. In 1928, he returned to Spain and at the outbreak of the Civil War, he
was made Prior of the Mental Hospital in Ciempozuelos, near Madrid. Although
there was an open persecution against the religious and the priests, he decided
to stay together with the entire Community to care for the patients, until one
day, they were imprisoned. On November 28, 1936, he was shot and his last words
were words of forgiveness for his executioners.
Martyrs of Faith
The 71 champions of charity, animated by a trusly deep motivation, remained
loyal to Jesus Christ in their belief in the Christian life and their religious
vocation, even to the acceptance of persecution and death, in order to bear
witness to their faith and consecration. Their fidelity clashed with marxist
communism and the religious oppression of the revolution of the Spanish
Militia, which, in an atmosphere of voilent persecution, broke out against the
Church and its institutions. In this background was found the fundamental
reason for their martyrdom.
In this background of persecution, the religious, torn from their life of
community and of charity, and often after long and cruel periods of
imprisonment, were sacrificed and died as martyrs of faith and of Jesus Christ.
The greeting "Hasta el Cielo" (See you in Heaven) and the cry "Viva Cristo Rey"
(Long live Christ the King) were the last echoes of their faith and
brotherhood.
Martyrs of Hospitality
With the beatification of these 71 hospitaller martyrs the catholic martyrology
has been enriched in a significant manner. This is not so much by reason of
their number, but more for the precise and special way they died as martyrs of
hospitality.
To the glorious crown common to all martyrs, is added in the case of our 71
hospitaller martyrs, as a shining ornament, the fact that they gave their lives
to witness their vocation and consecration to hospitality in the service of the
sick and needy as faithful imitators of Christ, the Good Samaritan, who passed
through this world doing good and healing the oppressed.
Therefore, the 71 beatified Hospitaller Brothers, from now on, will be hailed by
the Church as Witnesses of mercy and charity even to martyrdom.
© 1996 The Brothers of St. John
of God
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