29th Sunday in Ordinary Time
This is Mission Sunday. We remember in a particular way today those who serve and have served on the missions abroad. These men and women made great sacrifices to witness to the gospel. There was a time when they were held in very high regard in our Irish society. They were regarded as heroes, and rightly so. Unfortunately, our society today has a very different set of heroes: overpaid sportsmen and 'socialites' who are generally parasites rather than providers. It must be heartbreaking for those missionaries now returning after a life's work abroad to find the culture the left as young men and women now so debased and bankrupt. The idealism that drove them is now hardly understood. It is those who make big money rather than those who make big sacrifices who are looked up to today.
Next Sunday in Rome, 98 Augustinians who made the ultimate sacrifice will be beatified in St. Peters. On this Mission Sunday it is entirely appropriate that we should hear the stories of these 98 heroes. They were murdered at the beginning of the Apanish Civil War (1936), but the manner in which they died, rather than the fact of death its, is what makes them so remarkable. Of the 98, 73 were fully professed, and 25 Students. Most of them belonged to the monastery of The Escorial, near Madrid. There they ran a Church, a number of schools and a seminary. There were 30 students there in 1936.
The day after the Civil War began, the police placed a guard on the monastery. This was an ominous move, and the friars recognised it as such. For almost three weeks the comings and goings of the friars were monitored. On 5 August, the community was told by the police to prepare to be moved to Madrid the following morning. The fears of the friars were being confirmed slowly. The members encouraged each other and, in that spirit, the Prior gathered the entire community into the refectory where they found the tables prepared for a great feast. This 'Last Supper' at the Escorial has gone down in Augustinian lore, and rightly so. For 53 of those who sat down to enjoy that meal, it was their last supper together.
Next morning they attended Mass and received Holy Communion. Three old buses, with armed communist militiamen riding shotgun, took them to the State Security Office in Madrid. They were interviewed individually for a police identity card. They had decided among themselves beforehand that each would state clearly that he was an Augustinian friar. When the issuing of identity cards was completed the friars were placed in the police lock-up for the rest of the day.
Late in the afternoon they were taken to a school building which now served as a prison. They stayed there for the next few weeks, eating prison fare and sleeping on the bare boards.
It was rumoured that the Government would release intellectuals if they identified themselves and asked to be released. At least ten of the imprisoned Augustinians were well respected professors. But they refused to abandon their community. Great pressure was brought to bear on the students, some were tortured. But not one of them cracked.
In late November 1936, the prisoners were brought before a tribunal for a 'show trial' which followed a set pattern and lasted barely five minutes. Each friar was asked his name and the same questions: "Where were you before you came here?" On answering "In the monastery of The Escorial", he was asked "Are you an Augustinian?" When he answered "Yes", he was asked: "Are you willing to fight to defend the Government?" The standard answer the Augustinians gave to that question was: "With a gun, no! With the Red Cross or in a Hospital, yes!" That was it. Their fate was sealed. Invariably, the verdict was a death sentence.
On 28 November 12 of them were taken, together with 400 other prisoners, to an isolated place. Armed assassins, standing over some deep trenches awaited their arrival. The Prior, Fr Avelino Rodriguez was granted permission to say farewell to his confreres. He made the sign of the Cross on each one and embraced him; then he loudly proclaimed, "We know that you are going to kill us because we are members of a religious order; and certainly we are. I and my confreres forgive you from our hearts. We die saluting Christ the King!" Shots rang out and the victims fell into the already prepared trenches.
The next day more bus loads of prisoners, including Augustinians, were taken away. For some unknown reason, their fate was simply imprisonment, in a town near Madrid, and they survived the persecution. Among them was Fr. Luciano Rubio who was elected Prior General of the Augustinians in Rome in 1959.
On November 30th, 54 more Augustinians were taken to the trenches and executed. On that fateful journey bus journey, the prisoners prayed and sang hymns. The priests gave absolution to each other and to everyone travelling on that sad but memorable journey. In all 98 Augustinians were executed in those few days. They showed extraordinary courage, extraordinary faith in God and an extraordinary loyalty to one another. The sharing of the 'festive' supper was an extraordinary communal act of faith and confidence in God. On Sunday next, their heroism and faith will be recognised in St. Peter's in Rome when their martyrdom will be officially recognised. On this Mission Sunday we thank God for providing his Church with such remarkable heroes.