By George Ayalloor
Madrid: Cardinal Angelo Amato, Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, will beatify 60 martyrs in Spain, including two Vincentian priests who had worked in India’s Odisha state.
Fathers José María Fernández Sánchez and Pedro Pascual García Martín were part of the first two groups of Vincentian missionaries who came to India in 1922 and 1923.
They will be beatified on November 11 along with 58 martyrs of the Vincentian family at a special ceremony in Vista Alegre, Madrid.
Father Sánchez was born in Oviedo (Asturias) on January 15, 1875. He first joined the diocese of Oviedo as a seminarian. At the age of 20 while doing his fourth year of theology, he sought admission in the Congregation of the Mission also known as Vincentians.
After obtaining a doctorate in theology from the Leonian University of Rome, he served as a professor in Hortaleza, Madrid and Guadalajara. In 1921 he was assigned to start a mission of Cuttack, ancient capital of Odisha (then Orissa), which was then part of Vizagapatam diocese.
Propaganda Fide entrusted the Odisha province to the Vincentians.
The Odisha mission was erected as a vice province in 1925, with three communities, Father Sanchez was named vice visitor of India. However, he returned to Spain in 1927 and taught pastoral theology at the seminary in Oviedo. Three years later, he was appointed assistant director of the Spanish Province of the Daughters of Charity, a position which he held until his death.
During the Spanish Civil Wars, Father Sánchez, together with Father Roque Guillén and Brothers Cesáreo Elexgaray and Cristóbal González were arrested from their community, known as “House of Chaplains,” which was the novitiate of the Daughters of Charity on July 25, 1936.
He was condemned to death and was executed on October 23, 1936, along with two other priests and five brothers of the Congregation of the Mission.
Fr. Martín was born at Monteagudo del Castillo (Teruel) on June 6, 1892.
He joined the Congregation of the Mission in 1908 and made his final profession on 27 October 1910. He was ordained a priest on September 22, 1917.
After his ordination, he was first appointed at Alcorisa (Teruel), Ávila. In 1923 he was sent to the Mission of Cuttack (India) as part of the second group of missionaries and worked at the then mission centers of Surada, Jatni and Khurda Road.
He visited frequently the Christian villages and schools to administer the sacraments, to train teachers and catechists and to preach the word of God. He returned to Spain for health reasons in 1933 with the intention of returning to the mission.
Meanwhile, he was also engaged in preparing a dictionary which included various languages of India. Once in Spain, he was appointed at the provincial house of Madrid and during those years of religious persecution, he frequently preached retreats to the workers of the Saint Joseph Society at Cerro de los Ángeles.
He was executed on November 30, 1936.