Cervera, Spain. This past Sunday, September18, the Claretian family of Catalonia celebrated in Cervera and Mas Claret the 75th anniversary of nearly one hundred and thirty Catalan Claretians assassinated in 1936. Twenty-five of them belonged to the seminary of martyrs in Barbastro, beatified in 1992 by John Paul II. Another eighty-three are “servants of God” and their cause for beatification is very advanced.
In “Mas Claret”, in the place now called the Field of Martyrs, a group of eighteen Claretians died, and are remembered the third Sunday of September each year.
On the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the martyrdom a series of activities was scheduled during the day to commemorate the special significance of this event. The activities began at noon in the Church of San Antonio in Cervera, with a memorial of Fr. Claret and the centennial presence of the Claretians in that city. Later the group moved to the Royal Chapel of the University of Cervera, where the Claretians had the most important center of formation between the years 1887 and 1936. The day’s activities ended in the cemetery of the same city, at the mausoleum of the Claretians martyrs assassinated in the city or nearby.
Along with the activities there was time to rest, that many took advantage of to visit the nearby places of Cervera and the fort of the Claretian legacy, as well as to eat.
At 5:00 p.m. the group gathered at the Church of San Antonio of Cervera to celebrate the Eucharist, presided by the Bishop of Solsona, Mons. Xavier Novell, with homily preached by the provincial superior of the Claretians of Catalonia, Fr. Máxim Muñoz.
The day recalled the heroic testimony of faith and missionary ardor of the Claretian Martyrs and was an opportunity to share in community the memory of the 75th anniversary of their death. (Photo)
