Madrid, Spain. In line with the conviction expressed in the last General Chapter, the Claretians of the Province of Santiago recognize the Congregation as a family in the Spirit based on love, listening, welcome, and the proclamation of the Word (MFL 38); they are also known as heirs of a tradition of grace that has had a singular expression in hundreds of missionaries who have given their lives for the Kingdom of God.

The province has launched the publication of a simple collection of booklets, which have been called “Semblanzas” (Profiles), so that the memory of many of these missionaries will not be forgotten.

The series opens with a study on Fr. Cristóbal Fernández, who died in 1969, a tireless researcher to whom we are indebted for his very important works on Fr. Claret and the early years of the Congregation. The author is the F. Severiano Blanco, a great expert in Scripture and of the Claretian charism.

The second book focuses on Fr. Evencio Zubiri, who died in 2004. The centenary of his birth will be held in 2013. He was a fellow student of several of the Blessed Martyrs of Barbastro and is distinguished by having accompanied a large group of young missionaries in the discernment of their vocation. Two of them, Alfredo Mª Perez Oliver and Monsignor Fernando Sebastian – the first editor of the text and the second as its presenter – evoke his figure as a “multiplier torch”, collecting the testimony of many other companions. Completing the work are three drawings expressly made by Fr. José Beruete, Director of the Martirial Museum of Barbastro, who also lived with Fr. Zubiri.

It is the desire of the Province of Santiago to get copies of both works to all the Organisms of the Congregation.