Do You Know That…
 Sister Carmen Moreno Benitez and Sister Amparo Carbonell Muñoz are remembered in the liturgical
calendar (not Salesian) on September 1st together with Pedro Rivera, a priest who died like them in
1936?
http://vangelodelgiorno.org/main.php?language=IT&module=saintfeast&localdate=20130901&id=3294
&fd=0 Why 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 racetrack near the port of Barcelona, about 7 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? Or is 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 crime indistinct. 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 documentation of the identification of their bodies made 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 eyebrow and another
on the neck. Diagnosis: traumatic cerebral haemorrhage.”3
 The Process of the Spanish Martyrs (Valencia Group, with José Calasanz Marqués at the head) to
which our two FMA belong began on 12-15-1953? The deposition on the martyrdom was published in
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.
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.
 Their beatification was celebrated in Rome by John Paul II on Sunday, March 11, 2001? The beatified
were not only the 32 martyrs of the Salesian Family, but also 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 on September 22? Two groups are remembered:
1) Valencia Group (32 persons) – beatified March 11, 2001 by John Paul II
2) Seville and Madrid Group (63 persons) – beatified on October 28, 2007 by Benedict XVI
In total 95 persons: 39 Priests, 22 Clerics, 24 Brothers, 2 Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, 4 Salesian
Co-operators, 3 Salesian Aspirants, and 1 lay collaborator.
It is the memorial of Blessed 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 http://www.cgfmanet.org/info/_4_.asp?sez=4&sotsez=1&Doc=1160&Lingua=3
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 December of 1905, at 20 years of age?
 She made her perpetual vows at Seville in 1914, at the end of September. In 2014 it will be the 100th
anniversary of her perpetual profession!!!4
 Sister Carmen Moreno Provincial Vicar, Superior and confidante of Blessed Sister Eusebia Palomino
who prophesied her martyrdom?
 Twice she was in the community of Valverde del Camino? The second time for more than nine years
(from September 3, 1925 to February 1935) as Superior. “During the nine years in which Carmen was
the Superior at Valverde, two decisive events occurred, extremely different from each other: the
beatification of John Bosco (June 2, 1929) and the proclamation of the Spanish Republic (April 14,
1931)”5
 Sister Carmen wrote in a letter of 1935: “Since I understood that her soul [Sister Eusebia 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 on September 4, 1885, and died on September 6, 19368
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 is Maria 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 shortened according to current usage: the child
was called Amparo. The Virgin of 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
4
Ibid, 12.
Ibid, 18.
6
Ibid, 22.
7
Ibid, 18.
8
Ibid, 7.
9
Ibid, 9.
10
Cf ibid, 14.
5
 She made her first profession August 5, 1923 and her perpetual vows on August 5, 1929? It was the
year of Don Bosco’s beatification.
 In 1936 she was in the same community with Sister 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. Dorothy of Chopitea.
 She died at 43 years of age?