Martyrs of Turón

In October 1934, the Asturias revolution broke out, a workers' insurrection that led to the ephemeral proclamation of a "Socialist Republic" in Oviedo. The Turón mining basin, a hotbed of militancy, became the scene of anticlerical violence: the religious teachers there were perceived as symbols of the social order being fought. On October 5, 1934, militiamen burst into the Lasallian school and arrested the eight Brothers as well as Father Inocencio, who was present to hear the children's confessions. The nine men were imprisoned for four days, notably in a People's House. During the night of October 8 to 9, the revolutionary committee decided on their death sentence. In the early morning of October 9, 1934, they were taken to the local cemetery, shot without trial, and then buried in a mass grave. The Church has recognized them as martyrs killed in hatred of the faith, condemned for their religious state and their mission as Christian educators. Brother Cirilo Bertrán, director of the community, and his companions remained faithful to their vocation to the end, making their death, according to the expression used by ecclesiastical sources, the final lesson of their lives.

The journey toward holiness of the Martyrs of Turón is entirely inscribed within the logic of Christian martyrdom: not a path of long years of a reputation for holiness, but a supreme testimony rendered in a few days of trial. Teaching brothers and a priest confessor, they were seized in the very exercise of their vocation, at the service of youth, including the children of some of their own executioners. Ecclesial sources emphasize that they accepted death without denying their faith or their religious state, making their fidelity to their consecration the motive for their condemnation. Their holiness is therefore recognized as that of witnesses (martyrs) who, in accordance with the tradition of the Church, shed their blood in hatred of the faith. The diversity of their origins and ages—from the forty-year-old director to the youngest Brothers in their twenties—gives this group the figure of an entire community offered. It is this common death, lived in prayer and abandonment, that founded their reputation as martyrs and led to the opening of their cause.

The cause of the nine religious of Turón was introduced in the 20th century and recognized their death as a martyrdom suffered in hatred of the faith. Pope John Paul II beatified them on April 29, 1990, and then canonized them on November 21, 1999, in the Vatican Basilica. Their cause was associated with that of Brother Jaime Hilario Barbal, a Lasallian martyred near Tarragona in 1937, who was canonized on the same day as them; during this celebration of November 21, 1999, Benito Menni and Tommaso da Cori were also proclaimed saints in separate causes. The Martyrs of Turón are among the first martyrs of the Spanish religious persecutions of the 1930s to be raised to the honors of the altar. As they were martyrs, their beatification did not require the recognition of a miracle, but rather the authentication of the martyrdom; however, a miracle attributed to their intercession was recognized for the canonization, in accordance with the procedure. Their liturgical memorial is fixed for October 9, the anniversary of their death.

The Martyrs of Turón occupy an important place in the memory of the Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools (Lasallians), who venerate them as models of Christian educators faithful to their vocation in the service of youth even unto blood. Among them, Brother Benito de Jesús, in the world Héctor Valdivielso Sáez, born in Buenos Aires in 1910, is honored as the first saint born in Argentina, which gives the group a particular influence in Latin America. Inscribed among the first canonized martyrs of the Spanish religious persecutions of the interwar period, they are also associated with the broader memory of the martyrs of that era. Their cult is manifested primarily in Lasallian communities and establishments, in Asturias and in Turón, the site of their martyrdom, as well as in the devotion of the Passionist Church to Father Inocencio de la Inmaculada. Their feast day, October 9, is an occasion to recall the testimony of an entire teaching community given over to its mission.