Gaetano Clausellas Ballvé

After his ordination, Father Clausellas was appointed vicar-coadjutor at the parish of Santa Maria in Olesa de Montserrat, where he exercised his ministry from July 1888 to 1893. He was then transferred as coadjutor to the parish of Sant Antoni Abat in Vilanova i la Geltrú from 1893 to 1898. In June 1898, he returned to Sabadell as vicar of the parish of Sant Feliu, taking particular care of the chapel of the Most Holy Trinity (Santíssima Trinitat).

In Sabadell, he formed a deep friendship with the famous priest, writer, and Catholic apologist Feliu Sardá y Salvany. The latter had transformed his own family home into an asylum for needy elderly people, entrusted to the Little Sisters of the Abandoned Elderly (Hermanitas de los Ancianos Desamparados). Upon the death of Dr. Sardá y Salvany in 1916, Father Clausellas succeeded him as chaplain of this asylum.

For twenty years, from 1916 to 1936, he devoted himself body and soul to this work of charity. A man of great simplicity, humble and austere, he spent his days caring for, consoling, and spiritually accompanying the elderly and the dying. His tireless charity and dedication to the most destitute earned him the affectionate nickname from the local population of the "father of the poor" (pare dels pobres).

In July 1936, the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War was accompanied by a violent religious persecution led by Republican militias in Catalonia. Aware of the extreme danger weighing upon priests, Father Clausellas categorically refused to flee or hide so as not to abandon the elderly at the asylum. He declared: "I promised my predecessor and founder that I would never abandon the elderly at the Asylum, and if that means I must shed my blood, I accept it fully and I offer my life to God."

On the evening of August 14, 1936, three armed militiamen appeared at the asylum to arrest him under the pretext of transferring him to a safer place. The priest welcomed them with gentleness, said goodbye to his sister-in-law, and got into their vehicle while beginning to recite the Te Deum.

Meanwhile, friends of the priest, informed of his arrest, desperately tried to intercede on his behalf with the trade unionist mayor of Sabadell, Josep Moix. The latter ordered a messenger to telephone the checkpoint on the road to Castellar to intercept the car and prevent the execution. Unfortunately, the militiamen chose to take another route, the road leading to Matadepera.

Upon arriving near the chapel of Sant Julià d'Altura, the militiamen made Father Clausellas get out of the car and murdered him with a shot in the back (or in the head). His lifeless body was discovered the next morning, August 15, 1936, the feast day of the Assumption.

The cause for the beatification of Father Gaetano Clausellas Ballvé was introduced in 1959 as part of a group that also included the Bishop of Barcelona, Msgr. Manuel Irurita, and other companion martyrs. Due to historical controversies surrounding the figure of the bishop, the process experienced significant delays. At the request of the Diocese of Terrassa, the cause of Father Clausellas and the layman Antonio Tort Reixachs was finally separated from the rest of the group in order to reach a conclusion.

On April 13, 2024, Pope Francis authorized the promulgation of the decree recognizing the martyrdom in odium fidei (in hatred of the faith) of Father Gaetano Clausellas Ballvé.

The solemn beatification ceremony was celebrated on November 23, 2024, at the Basilica of the Sagrada Família in Barcelona. It was presided over, in the name of Pope Francis, by Cardinal Marcello Semeraro, Prefect of the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, in the presence of more than 1,500 faithful and numerous ecclesiastical and civil authorities.

The spirituality of Blessed Gaetano Clausellas Ballvé is deeply marked by humility, evangelical poverty, and an active charity modeled on the figure of the Good Samaritan. During his beatification, Cardinal Semeraro emphasized that "humility was the companion of his charity," a charity lived out in discretion and the daily service of the most vulnerable.

Since the end of the Civil War, the memory of the "father of the poor" has remained very vivid in Sabadell. A first commemorative monument (a monolith) was inaugurated on December 4, 1941, at the exact site of his martyrdom on the road to Matadepera. His mortal remains, initially buried in the local cemetery, were solemnly transferred in June 1957 to the parish church of Sant Feliu de Sabadell, where they now rest in the chapel of the Virgin of Montserrat, making his tomb a place of prayer and constant devotion for the faithful.