Yesterday in Tarragona there occurred the Beatification of 522 martyrs from the Spanish Civil War, amongst whom was the Oratorian Bl. Salvio Huix-Miralpeix, Bishop of Llerida (Lérida), who was martyred along with many of his priests by the Republicans in the Spanish Civil War on August 5th 1936. He is the first Oratorian martyr to be beatified.
Bl. Salvio was amember of the Oratory at Vich before becoming Bishop of Ibiza in 1928, and was transalted to Llerida eighteen months before his murder. There is a life of him on the website of the Manchester Oratory, which can be read here. The Oxford Oratory website has an article about him, and about another Oratorian, Fr Mas, who was also a victim of the anti-clericals and whose cause is being carried forward. It can be read here.
Bl.Salvio Huix-Miralpeix
Image:beatificacion2013.com
A group of pilgrims from Oxford, led by Fr Dominic and Fr Richard, have gone to attend the ceremonies of Beatification and to visit pilgrimage sites in Catalonia, and the Oxford Oratory will have a Mass of thanksgiving for the Beatification at 11am on Sunday October 27th.
Until the beatifications of recent years the many Catholic victims of the Red Tetror in Spain before and during the Civil War have tended to be ignored by the outside world. The terrible events of those years have been ignored by many who really should no better. Having read something of the hsitory of the period I find it really shocking to read, for example, Anglican clergy who write of the 'legitimacy' of the Second Spanish Republic.
May Bl. Salvio and his companions continue to pray for the Church in Spain and for persecuted Christians everywhere.
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