On Sunday, October 13 last, the beatification of a group of 522 “Martyrs of the 20th Century in Spain” took place in Tarragona (Spain). The Carmelites, Blessed Carmelo Maria Moyano and 9 companions (Bética Province) and Blessed Marco Alemán and 8 companions (Province of Castile) were among the group. Cardinal Angelo Amato, Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of the Saints led the celebration. At the beginning of the ceremony Pope Frances delivered a televised message to all the people present, who numbered some 20,000, between religious and lay people. The Pope exhorted them to be witnesses to faith, as the martyrs were. The Spanish Bishops’ Conference in full attended, as did the Prior General of the Carmelite Order, Fr. Fernando Millán Romeral, the Postulator General, Fr. Giovanni Grosso, the Provincials of the Iberian Region and the Commissary General of Portugal, the Superiors General of the Hermanas Carmelitas del Sagrado Corazón (HCSCJ) and of the Hermanas de la Virgen Maria del Monte Carmelo (HVMMC), other religious men and women and many members of the families of the Blessed Carmelite Martyrs.

Following the Beatifications, Masses of Thanksgiving were celebrated in different places: On October 19 the bishop of Cordoba, Demetrio Fernández González led the celebration in Montoro (Cordoba), the place where the Blesseds José M.Mateos, Eliseo M. Durán, Jaime M. Carretero y Ramón M. Pérez, were martyred, and on October 20 the bishop of the diocesis led the celebration in Hinojosa del Dugue (Córdoba), the place where the Blesseds Carmelo M. Moyano, José M. González, Eliseo M. Camargo, José M. Ruiz, Antonio M. Martín y Pedro M. Velasco, were martyred. On November 6, a Mass of thanksgiving will be celebrated in the Carmelite house in Seville. Juan José Asenjo Pelegrina, the Archbishop of Seville, will lead it.