1936: The Seven Martyrs of Madrid
Add comment November 18th, 2018 Headsman
On this date in 1936, the Seven Martyrs of Madrid became martyrs.*
These sisters of Catholicism’s Visitandine or Visitation Order were the last remaining to watch over their convent, which had been mostly evacuated for fear of anti-clerical violence in the unfolding Spanish Civil War.
Indeed, even these seven felt it wiser to stay in a nearby apartment where they secreted the convent’s treasures and kept their holy orders as quiet as possible.
Their precautions were justified — but insufficient. On the night of November 17, weeks after the Spanish capital was besieged by the Francoists an anarchist militia tossed the place, interrogated them, and then returned the next day to have them summarily executed on the outskirts of town.
“I beg God that the marvelous example of these women who shed their blood for Christ, pardoning from their hearts their executioners,” Pope John Paul II said when beatifying these sisters in 1998, “may succeed in softening the hearts of those who today use terror and violence to impose their will upon others.”
* Technically, only Sisters Gabriela de Hinojosa, Teresa Cavestany, Josefa Barrera, Ines Zudaire, Engracia Lecuona, and Angela Olaizola were shot on the 18th. Sister Cecilia Cendoya escaped her captors but later turned herself in and obtained the crown of martyrdom a few days afterwards.
On this day..
- 1872: Joseph Garcia, for the Llangibby Massacre - 2019
- 1784: Richard Barrick and John Sullivan - 2017
- 1441: Roger Bolingbroke, "hanged, hedyd, and quartered" - 2016
- 1813: Ezra Hutchinson, teen rapist - 2015
- 1329: Alberghettino II Manfredi, upstart condottiero - 2014
- 1427: Johann Bantzkow, Mayor of Wismar - 2013
- 1646: Twelve at an Evora auto da fe - 2012
- 1961: Four for the assassination of Rafael Trujillo - 2011
- 2009: Danielle Simpson, "If I can't be free - Kill me!!" - 2010
- 1864: Hong Tianguifu, in the Taiping Rebellion - 2009
- 2005: Elias Syriani, a family affair - 2008
- 1577: Soulmother of Kussnacht - 2007
Entry Filed under: 20th Century,Capital Punishment,Death Penalty,Execution,History,Martyrs,Mass Executions,Religious Figures,Shot,Spain,Summary Executions,Wartime Executions,Women
Tags: 1930s, 1936, angela olaizola, cecilia cendoya, engracia lecuona, gabriela de hinojosa, ines zudaire, john paul ii, josefa barrera, madrid, november 17, spanish civil war, teresa cavestany
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