Br. Crisanto and 67 Companions Martyrs
On August 27 we remember the murdered of Brother Crisanto in Tartereu (Lérida). Also on this day we commemorate 67 other martyrs murdered in different places and dates, which are part of the same process. Sixty-eight martyrs who died in the years l936–l939 during the persecution that broke out against the Catholic Church in Spain. The Positio (official document dealing with the martyrdoms) was submitted to the Congregation for the Causes of Saints on December 7, 2001.
The martyrdom of Br. Crisanto
Towards twelve o’clock, on August 27, in 1936, a group of foreign militia entered the village of Tartareu; the people guessed the militia’s intention was to kill Brother Crisanto. He replied that he could not abandon the young aspirants in his charge; thus he quickly walked to the police station where the strange intruders had been waiting for him. The local militia were told to withdraw.
“Knowing that I had a vehicle, they ordered me to put it at their disposal. Soon, Brother Crisanto left accompanied by the militia and members of the local committee. Brother was smiling, tranquil while saying his adieu to those near him. The village people were very aggrieved by the fact that Brother had fallen into the hands of such savages. The chief of the militia noticed their reaction, and threatened the crowd with his gun and ordered them home.
Having moved three hundred metres further beyond the Mas del Pastor, the militia led Brother Crisanto to an escarpment where they invited the three members of the Tartareu Committee to shoot him. These refused explaining that they could not kill anybody from their own village.
Immediately, we heard seven or eight shots as we had turned our backs so as not to assist at the assassination. And, as the servant of God lay on the ground the torturers finished him with another shot. Turning towards us, they showed us the brother’s personal objects: a watch, a pen and a few coins.”
The militia forced the local farmers to bury the deceased threatening them with a similar fate if they were to refuse do so. These peasants noticed the cross in the brother’s fingers.
Killed around midday, Brother Crisanto was buried in the afternoon.
The corpse was exhumed for the first time four years later, on 4 May 1940 in the presence of a hundred witnesses. The body was decomposed but the right hand still held the little cross.
A second exhumation took place thirty-one years later on 15 August 1967. During this second ceremony, the mortal remains of Brother Crisanto and those of other martyred brothers during the same period, such as Brother Laurentino’s group of forty-six were transferred to the great chapel of Les Avellanes. This is now a place of pilgrimage.
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* Brother Crisanto and Sixty-seven Companions, Martyrs
Brother Giovanni Maria Bigotto, Postulator – 2010
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* Prayer: To Glorify God in our martyrs
Doc word – 340 kb: English | Spanish | French | Portuguese