Do You Know That…

  • Sister Carmen Moreno Benitez and Sister Amparo Carbonell Muñoz are remembered in the liturgical calendar (notSalesian) on September 1st together with Pedro Rivera, a priest who died like them in 1936? on this day? Perhaps because they were arrested on September 1st, 1936, together with Sr. Carmen Xammar (Provincial Economer), as soon as she left the hospital.She was later released.
  • Both had suffered martyrdom on September 6, 1936, whereas Sister Xammar left for Turin on September 10, without knowing that her two sisters had been shot?It was a terrifying journey. “Some soldiers tried every means to stop them. They could not accept that another group of religious would escape their power. They threatened to sink the ship”. Sister Xammar died on November 1 of the same year. “Wasn’t her death substantially a martyrdom as well?”[1]
  • They were martyred early in the morning, at the racetracknear the port of Barcelona, about7 km from their house? “Early in the morning of the 6th, their murderers opened the doors of their cell. The two Sisters were brought to the city’s racetrack, near the ocean. Isn’t a shooting a show as well? Oris it only a horse race? However, it was a show reserved for only a few people. It happened very early, when the last night shadows rendered the outlines of the crimeindistinct. The shooting squad left and the bodies remained abandoned on the ground. […] Toward one in the afternoon, the two horrible cadavers were brought to the University Polyclinic. They certainly were not the only cadavers. …”[2]
  • Saved was the documentationof the identification of their bodiesmade by the doctors in which we read:

“4676.A woman,brought from the racetrack. Tall, about fifty-five years old, robust of body, dressed in black. Clothing labeled Sister Moreno Carmen. Present a gunshot wound with entry on the region of the left temporal and exit on the right temporal. Diagnosis: traumatic cerebral hemorrhage.

4677. Woman, brought from the racetrack. About forty years old. Strong body,powerful and robust,dressed in a light colored duster. Presents a gunshot wound in the area of the left eyebrowand another on the neck. Diagnosis: traumatic cerebral haemorrhage.”[3]

  • The Processof the Spanish Martyrs (Valencia Group, with José Calasanz Marqués at the head)to which our two FMA belong beganon 12-15-1953? The deposition on the martyrdomwas published in 1995 and the decree of martyrdom on 12-20-1999. This Salesian group is composed of 32 persons: 17 priests, 6 brothers, 5 clerics, 2 FMA, 2 laypersons.
  • Theirbeatificationwas celebrated in Rome by John Paul II on Sunday, March11, 2001? The beatified were not only the 32 martyrsof the Salesian Family, butalso 201 other Spanish martyrs who died between 1936 and 1939, belonging to various religious families, diocesan clergy, and lay people. In total 233 persons,with José Aparicio Sanz, Diocesan priest, placed at head (+ 12-29-1936). This is why the celebration booklet has written: Beatification of the Servants of God José Aparcicio Sanz and 232 Martyr Companions of Spain (1936-1939), St. Peter Square, March 11, 2001.
  • The Salesian Family celebrates its Spanish martyrs onSeptember 22?Two groups are remembered:

1) Valencia Group (32 persons) – beatifiedMarch 11, 2001 by John Paul II

2) Seville and Madrid Group (63 persons) – beatified onOctober 28, 2007 by Benedict XVI

In total95 persons: 39 Priests, 22 Clerics, 24 Brothers, 2 Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, 4 SalesianCo-operators, 3 Salesian Aspirants, and 1 lay collaborator.

It is the memorial ofBlessed Giuseppe Calasanz Marqués (of Group 1), Enrico Sáiz Aparicio (of Group 2) with 93 other martyrs.

  • There exists only one FMA community in the Institute that bears the name of Blessed Sister Carmen Moreno? Cf

SISTER CARMEN MORENO BENITEZ (1885-1936)

  • Carmen was the fourth child of Fabiana and José, farmers of Andalusia (Cadiz)? Her older sister, Paz, had entered the Institute before her? Of five sons and daughters, two were FMA.
  • Carmen’s father died when she was 7 years old (1892) and her mother was 35 years old (1920)?
  • She entered the FMA Institute in Decemberof 1905, at 20 years of age?
  • She made her perpetual vows atSeville in 1914, at the end ofSeptember. In2014 it will be the 100th anniversary of her perpetual profession!!![4]
  • Sister Carmen Moreno Provincial Vicar, Superiorandconfidante ofBlessed Sister Eusebia Palomino who prophesied her martyrdom?
  • Twice she was in thecommunityof Valverde del Camino? The second time for more than nine years (from September 3, 1925 toFebruary 1935) as Superior. “During the nine years in which Carmen wasthe Superior at Valverde,two decisive events occurred, extremely different from each other: the beatificationof John Bosco (June 2, 1929) and theproclamationof the Spanish Republic (April 14, 1931)”[5]
  • Sister Carmen wrote in aletterof 1935: “Since I understood that her soul [SisterEusebia Palomino] was extraordinary, I frequently went to help her in the kitchen […]”[6]
  • Sister Carmen participated in the beatification of Don Bosco.First, there were the celebrations in Rome, then at Turin, but “there are no witnesses regarding the emotions she lived in those days”[7]
  • She died at 55 years of age.She was baptized onSeptember 4, 1885, and died on September 6, 1936[8]

SISTER AMPARO CARBONELL MUÑOZ (1893-1936)

  • Amparo was born in the small centre of Alboraya (Province of Valencia) and her home was only 3 km from the sea. She was eight years younger than Sister Carmen?
  • Her complete name isMaria de los Desamparados? This name is very dear to the Spanish of the east, and it regards the “Virgin who receives all the disinherited, all the sorrowing, with immense maternal compassion […] That long and difficult name was quickly shortenedaccording to current usage: the childwas calledAmparo.The Virginof the sorrowing will make her a consolation”[9]
  • The parents of Amparo, Carmen e Miguel, were farmers as well?
  • She entered the FMA Institute in 1921 at 28 years of age. “She reached Barcellona Sarriá on January 31, 1921. It was only thirty-three years since Don Bosco’s death”. (In those years, Don Bosco had been given the canonical title of Venerable)[10]
  • She made her first professionAugust 5, 1923 and her perpetual vows onAugust 5, 1929?It was the year of Don Bosco’s beatification.
  • In 1936 she was in the same community withSister Carmen Moreno in the house founded by Don Bosco? Amparo was a ‘jack of all trades’;Carmen was the Vicar.The house, “Saint Dorothy” of Barcellona, to which they were sent, was desired and founded by don Bosco with not only financial help, but also with the full spiritual adhesion of Mrs. Dorothyof Chopitea.
  • She died at 43 years of age?

[1] Cf COLLINO Maria, Il colore rosso dell’amore. Carmen Moreno e Amparo Carbonel. Martiri di Cristo, Leumann (Torino) Elledici 2001, 85-86. (The Red Colour of Love: Carmen Moreno and Amparo Carbonel – Martyrs of Christ)

[2] Ibid, 88-89.

[3] Ibid, 89.

[4] Ibid, 12.

[5] Ibid, 18.

[6] Ibid, 22.

[7] Ibid, 18.

[8] Ibid, 7.

[9] Ibid, 9.

[10] Cf ibid, 14.