Blessed Martyrs of Valencia
The five blessed to whom we dedicate these pages were
members of the Institute of the Brothers of the Christian
Schools. Their only concern was to follow Jesus in the vocation
to which he had called them: to gain salvation by educating
young people, teaching them to live as Christians.
When religious persecution began in Spain, they were working
peacefully in the educational institutions in the Lasallian
District of Barcelona. Because of the religious persecution
there, they fled to Valencia in order to continue their ministry
of education. It was in Valencia that the Lord called them to a
radical witness. When they were found to be religious, they
were arrested and executed.
Martyrs are a sign of the Church, the Body of Christ, which
continues being persecuted and condemned to death in her
members, but these martyrs keep their sights fixed on the
glorious dawn of the resurrection.
This is the lesson that the Martyrs give to us, yesterday and
today. We should be ready to imitate their generosity.
Brothers Florencio Martín, Bertrán Francisco, Ambrosio León, Elías Julián, Honorato Andrés, and
Father Leonardo O. Buera, chaplain of the Bonanova School, gave their lives for being faithful to
their roles as ministers and ambassadors of Jesus Christ.
Even though they knew that affirming their state as religious would lead them to death, they did
not hesitate in admitting their faith in Jesus and the fact that they belonged to the Institute of the
Brothers of the Christian Schools.
These five Brothers, now beatified, had no other job than that of following Jesus in the vocation to
which He had called them: To bring salvation to the young and children, that is to say, to educate
young people and children entirely in a Christian manner, so that they might achieve their full
potential as human beings and as Christians.
With their beatification, their names will increase the number of Saints and Blessed among the
Lasallian world. Beginning with St. John Baptist de La Salle, our Founder, and then later with
Brother Salomon Leclerq, the first Brother martyr during the French Revolution, they ensure that
fidelity to the Lord along the path of the integrated education of young men and women, boys
and girls, constitutes a Gospel journey.
Young person, teacher, Lasallian partner, parent, this message invites us also to devote our lives
to the Kingdom, based on our chosen lifestyles and the professional activities we carry out. The
cause of the Kingdom compels our lives to acquire the religious dimension which is a source for
happiness and continued strength, even when facing life's most difficult tests.
Along with our newly beatified Lasallians we remember many other martyrs whose lives were
violently snatched away for the sole reason that they were proclaimers of Jesus Christ. We recall
our martyrs from France, Mexico, the Philippines, Poland, Vietnam, Guatemala, Colombia, and
Spain. We also venerate the memory of so many Brothers and Lasallian partners who devoted
their lives in a gradual way, day after day, bit by bit like a piece of chalk on the blackboard in the
anonymity of daily fidelity.
And the familiar voice of our Founder resounds in our ears and in our heart, when he tells us:
"The only thanks you should expect for instructing children, especially the poor, is injury, insult,
calumny, persecution, and even death. This is the recompense of the saints and of apostolic men,
as it was for Our Lord Jesus Christ." (Meditation 155.3)
Beatified March 11, 2001.