Bl. Salvi Huix Miralpeix

  Posted on August 5, 2019  by admin  No comments

Born: 22 December 1877 in Santa Margarida de Vallors, Girona, Spain

Died: shot in the head on the morning of 5 August 1936 in a cemetery in Lleida, Spain

Beatified: 13 October 2013 by Pope Francis

Born to a pious and fairly wealthy family. Known for his hard work as a student and seminarian, and for his problems controlling his temper. Ordained on 19 September 1903 in the diocese of Vic, Spain. Rural parish priest for several years. Joined the Oratorians in Vich 1907, and ministered to the people of that city. He started a confraternity for married men under the patronage of Saint Joseph to revitalize the spiritual and parish life of working men who routinely fell away from an active faith life. Taught theology at the local seminary. Apostolic administrator of Ibiza, Spain, an impoverished diocese that had been without a bishop for 69 years, and titular bishop of Selymbria on 16 February 1928.

When the anti–Catholic republic assumed power in Spain in 1931 and began issuing laws shutting down the Church and secularizing all things, Father Salvi continued his work, and encouraged his flock not to abandon the faith in the face of yet another persecution which would pass as all others had done. Bishop of Lleida, Spain on 28 January 1935, a see he held when the Spanish Civil War broke out and the anti–Christian persecutions erupted in open massacres and martyrdoms. Arrested with a group of other Christians, Father Salvi spent his time in jail, including the ride to the cemetery where they were to be executed, ministering to his fellow prisoners. He was forced to dig his own grave, and was offered freedom if he would renounce Christianity; he declined but asked to be the last to die so he could pray for and bless each of the other victims as they died. One of the milita men objected and shot up Salvi’s right arm to stop his blessings; he continued with his left. Martyr.