Suggest an Edit — José Calasanz Marqués

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Biography

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José Calasanz Marqués was a Spanish Catholic priest of the Salesians of Don Bosco who was killed in the anticlerical violence of the Spanish Civil War. He was born on 23 November 1872 in Azanuy, in the province of Huesca in Aragon, and bore the name of the Aragonese saint Joseph Calasanz. He was educated in Salesian schools, entered the congregation, made religious profession, and was ordained a priest. His ministry was devoted to the Salesian work of education and the care of the young in Spain.

He served as a teacher and as a local superior of Salesian communities. By the 1930s the Salesians had a substantial network of schools and oratories in Catalonia. Marqués was in Barcelona when the Civil War began in July 1936. Republican militias quickly attacked churches and religious houses. Salesian communities in the city were occupied or dispersed, and many priests and brothers were arrested.

Marqués was seized, held for a short time, and taken to the cemetery at Montcada i Reixac, on the outskirts of Barcelona. On 29 July 1936 he was executed by firing squad. Later ecclesiastical processes treated his death as martyrdom in hatred of the faith. He was one of a large number of Salesians killed in Catalonia in the first weeks of the war.

Pope John Paul II beatified him on 11 March 2001 in Rome, together with companion martyrs of the same persecution. He is venerated as Blessed José Calasanz Marqués, chiefly within the Salesian family and in the local churches of Aragon and Catalonia.

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