Their voices echoed through the olive groves before the gunshots. The Church honors the martyrs memory with a beatification ceremony held on December 13 in Spain.
Newsroom (15/12/2025 Gaudium Press ) With the beatification ceremony held last Saturday, December 13, in Jaén, Spain, the Church honours the memory of more than 120 martyrs of the religious persecution during the Spanish Civil War, men and women who gave their lives for Christ. Among them stands out the figure of Francisco de Paula Padilla Gutiérrez, known as the Spanish Saint Maximilian Kolbe, and other priests who were shot near the cemetery of Mancha Real.
The ceremony, held in the Jaén Cathedral—the same place that served as a prison during the Spanish Civil War—marks a gesture of reconciliation and remembrance, a just tribute to those who suffered and offered their lives in those days of sorrow.
The execution near the Mancha Real cemetery
On April 3, 1937, 35 prisoners were taken from the Jaén Cathedral to Mancha Real, where they were shot against the cemetery wall. None of them were soldiers; they were priests, seminarians, and lay faithful. The execution was in retaliation for the bombing of Jaén by the Nationalist forces on April 1st.
Among those arrested was Francisco Solís, parish priest of Mancha Real, who—according to witnesses—led the Marian hymns both on the truck and at the execution wall. Before dying, he absolved all his companions.
Solís was remembered for his extensive social work; he had promoted Christian unions, soup kitchens, and family schools, works that are now seen as a reflection of his charity. He was beatified in 2013 along with 122 other martyrs in a large ceremony held in Tarragona, Spain.
“Save me, Mary”: witnesses of that night
A moving testimony of what happened comes from Carmen Ruiz Cano, who heard the trucks arriving and the explosions from the house of a relative near the cemetery.
“We heard the sound of trucks, at least two,” she recounted. “In the silence of the night, we heard the singing of a Marian hymn, known as ‘Save Me, Mary,’ coming from those in the trucks.”
Her father and brother, who were watching from their hiding places among the olive groves, confirmed that the prisoners were being guarded by armed militiamen. “Moments later, we heard several rapid-fire explosions, like bursts from machine guns,” Carmen added.
According to her testimony, Father Solís was the last to die. “Solís absolved everyone. When the moment came to kill him, no one dared; finally, a poor cripple known as ‘El Jibaillo,’ who had a reputation for being very wicked, shot him.”
The “Spanish Kolbe”: the priest who offered himself in place of another prisoner
Among those executed that April 3rd was Francisco de Paula Padilla Gutiérrez, parish priest of San Martín de Arjona. His heroic act in the Jaén prison earned him the nickname “the Spanish Kolbe,” in reference to Saint Maximilian Kolbe, the Polish martyr who also offered himself up for another prisoner.
According to the testimony of his cellmate, Fernando de la Haza Vizcaíno, one night the militiamen began calling out the prisoners’ names: “A young leader, standing in the center of the gallery, began calling out the names, ordering them to line up; other militiamen were tying their hands with wire. Most of the prisoners went to their martyrdom in their shirts; they weren’t given any more time to finish dressing.”
When they called a man named José, a father of six, he began to weep and resist. Then, Father Padilla Gutiérrez stepped forward: “I am Francisco Padilla Gutiérrez, a priest. I have no wife or children, so I beg you to take me and not this poor man.”
It was his last act. Shortly afterward, the militiamen opened fire. Some witnesses claimed to have heard shouts of “Long live Christ the King!” followed by gunfire during the night.
The scene was recounted in the book *Relatos de la historia de un pueblo* (Marmolejo), by Diego González Chincolla (1994).
The Parish Priest of the Soup Kitchen
Another of the priests executed was José Herrera Cano, parish priest of Villacarrillo, Spain. He was 40 years old and had distinguished himself through his dedication to the poorest of the poor. In his parish, he had founded a soup kitchen where he fed 250 unemployed people living in abject poverty every day.
His niece testified that he made no distinction between right-wing and left-wing poor people, something that, paradoxically, was considered an aggravating factor in his trial. It was considered proven that he served all the poor in his soup kitchen, which was seen as an aggravating factor because it hindered the revolution.
He was executed the night before Blessed Solís. His body, like the others, was thrown into the cemetery’s mass grave.
The Professor Who Taught Spiritual Strength
Among the martyrs was also Francisco de Asís Morales, a 65-year-old priest, professor of asceticism and mysticism at the Jaén seminary, and confessor to several communities of nuns. He taught them: “I don’t want you to be sweet little nuns, but strong like the woman in the Gospel.”
He was arrested in September 1936 and shot against the cemetery wall in Mancha Real on April 3, 1937, after secretly celebrating Holy Thursday Mass in prison.
Other priests who gave their lives
That same day, Ildefonso García Martínez, assistant priest in Begíjar, and Miguel Barberán Juan, Padilla Gutiérrez’s colleague in Arjona, were also murdered. Little is known about them other than their unwavering faith until the end.
Before that massacre, three other priests had been executed in Mancha Real during 1936: Ildefonso Ortega González, 63, known as “Father Alfonsón,” shot on October 30, 1936. José Ortega Carrillo, chaplain to the Augustinian nuns in Jaén, was also murdered, denounced by a milkmaid, in November of the same year. And finally, Juan Olid, a 30-year-old priest born in Mancha Real and assistant priest of the town, was executed on August 29, 1936, after rejecting indecent proposals from female militia members.
The Memory of the Martyrs of Jaén
All of them are part of the group of martyrs of Jaén, men of faith and charity, whom the Church remembers today with gratitude.
The historian and postulator Rafael Higueras—author of the volumes *Process on the Martyrdom of the Servants of God Manuel Izquierdo Izquierdo and 129 Companions*—insists on the importance of rescuing their names: “I believe we should go to each town where the martyr was born, died, or served as a priest, speak with the parish there, introduce them to him, and let them know who he is.”
Today, after their beatification, their stories shine once again as a testament to forgiveness and love, and their names are etched not only on altars but also in the living memory of the people of Jaén.
With information from Religión en Libertad
The post “Sálvame, María”: el canto que acompañó a los mártires de Jaén hacia la eternidad appeared first on Gaudium Press Español.
Related Images:
