On November 6, the Redemptorist Family commemorates the Spanish martyrs of Cuenca and Madrid , beatified in 2013 and 2022. Their witness, sealed in times of persecution, continues to inspire the renewal of the Redemptorist charism in a world facing new challenges.
“It is curious that all the Redemptorists of the 20th century who have attained sainthood have done so as martyrs.” This was highlighted by Antonio Manuel Quesada Montoro, CSsR, vice-postulator of the cause, in an interview with Religión Digital (October 25, 2022). Although the objective was to report on the 20 Redemptorists martyred in Spain during the religious persecution—6 in Cuenca, 2 in Valencia, and 12 in Madrid—Father Quesada’s words revealed something deeper: a new model of holiness that resonates in a society very different from that of his time.
These are in addition to the five blessed Greek Catholic martyrs beatified by Saint John Paul II—four from Ukraine and one from Slovakia. “Furthermore,” commented Father Quesada, “the process for the 30 Poles from the Warsaw community martyred by the Nazis in 1944 is still pending.”
Europe, unexpected scene of martyrdom
On the occasion of the beatification of the Martyrs of Cuenca in 2013, the then Superior General of the Redemptorists, Father Michael Brehl, CSsR, wrote in a circular letter: “For the first two hundred years of the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer, no Redemptorist missionary had been killed or recognized as a martyr by the Church. St. Alphonsus dreamed of missionaries proclaiming the Gospel in distant lands and embracing martyrdom for fidelity to Christ. But before 1936, no Redemptorist had suffered martyrdom for the faith.
I doubt that St. Alphonsus imagined that the first martyrs of his Congregation would be in Spain. It is exceptional that, since 2001, the Church has recognized eleven Redemptorists who gave their lives for Christ and his people, all in the twentieth century and all in Europe: Spain, Ukraine, and Slovakia.”
Celebrating our martyrs is to renew the Redemptorist charism
Nine years later, in October 2022, the beatification of another 12 Redemptorists who also suffered martyrdom during the Spanish Civil War of 1936 was celebrated in Madrid. This ceremony resonated deeply throughout the Redemptorist Family and raised a necessary question: what meaning does the witness of those brothers have for new generations today?
“The martyrs are living proof that the word and solidarity strengthen all weakness, transform the selfish heart, and reveal, in their simplicity, the joy of the Gospel that no one can take away,” wrote Fr. Francisco Javier Caballero, CSsR (Icon editorial, October 2022). He continued, “For us, celebrating the martyrdom of this small group of Redemptorists must mean the renewal of our practices, the opening of our communities, the conversion of our finances, and a more sincere and constant approach to the Word that heals and transforms; that lifts up the weak and raises its voice for the oppressed.”
Father Rogério Gomes, CSsR, Superior General of the Congregation, during the Thanksgiving Mass for the Beatification, said: “Martyrdom is not something distant from us. The martyrdom of hunger, of war, of violence, of immigration, of the poverty that plagues millions of people, of social exclusion, of religious and political fundamentalism, of those who fight for justice for the poorest and are persecuted and killed. These people live the passion of Christ in their own skin. That is why, when we celebrate our 12 martyrs, we also remember the martyrs of today: men, women and children who fight for a better world or die silently and cruelly as victims of social sin.” (Homily in Madrid, October 23, 2022).
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