Tea at Trianon: The Somiedo Martyrs of the Spanish Civil War

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Saturday, June 15, 2019

The Somiedo Martyrs of the Spanish Civil War

From The Catholic Herald:

On June 12, the Vatican Congregation for the Causes of Saints announced that Pope Francis had moved forward the causes of canonization for eight servants of God, officially granting them the title of venerable. Of the cases moved forward, the Somiedo martyrs of the Spanish Civil War were also named venerable.

Pilar Gullón Yturriaga, 25, Octavia Iglesias Blanco, 41, and Olga Pérez-Monteserín Núñez, 23, were martyred on October 28, 1936. The three women, who served as Red Cross nurses in Pola de Somiedo, were raped and shot naked. They had arrived at the hospital in Somiedo on October 18, and on October 27 they learned that populist forces were quickly coming to take over the hospital, but they refused to leave. The forces killed the doctor, chaplain, and all the patients. Given the chance to renounce their faith, the women refused and died shouting ¡Viva Cristo Rey! and ¡Viva Dios!, meaning Long live Christ the King! Long live God! Yturriaga, who survived the first shot, forgave her murderers and prayed they would be forgiven by God before she died. (Read more.)

"Soeur Espagne, sainte Espagne... tu as choisi!
Onze évêques, seize-mille prêtres massacrés... et pas une apostasie!"

~ Paul Claudel, "Aux martyrs espagnols" Share