CAUSA Narcisus Esténaga Echevarría et X Socii

The Cause concerns 11 “presumed Martyrs”: Narcisus Estenaga (Bishop), 4 priests, 5 Brothers of the Christian Schools and 1 layman.

Santa Cruz de Mudela is a small town in the province of Ciudad Real, where in 1936 there was a school run by the Brothers of the Christian Schools. Five religious formed the community:

Br. Agapito León (Remigio Angel Olalla Aldea), Direttore, 33  years old

Br. Dámaso Luis (Antolín Martínez Martínez), 21  years old    

Br. Josafat Roque (Urbano Corral González), 37  years old

Br. Julio Alfonso (Valeriano Ruiz Peral), 25  years old

Br. Ladislao Luis (Isidoro Muñoz Antolín), 20  years old

On 22nd July 1936, a group of militiamen surrounded the school in an uproar, invaded it and arrested the five Brothers. They took them to the village “cheka” where they stayed for five days. Then, together with other detainees, they took them to another prison where they stayed until 19 August. They persisted in humiliating and making the Brothers suffer. Several times they made them sweep the public square, amidst insults and harassment. They forced them to go on military marches chanting Marxist slogans and on more than one occasion slapped them.

Despite their sufferings, they showed courage during their imprisonment and it was they who supported and encouraged the other prisoners, priests and militant Catholics of the place. While they were imprisoned, a benefactress of the College, Doña Cecilia Ramiro, took charge of their food, which she brought to the prison every day. On 18 August, the feast of St Agapitos, the Director’s name day, she brought him sweets which he distributed to everyone, including the prisoners. But the next day, 19 August 1936, a group of militiamen came to the prison and took the Brothers and 25 other prisoners, including five priests. They loaded them onto a truck and at midnight murdered them in the cemetery of Valdepeñas, then threw them all into a mass grave.