On This Feast of Martyrs: One Martyr’s Letter to His Loved One

Ave Maria MeditationsProvincial prison of Jaen, Oct. 1, 1936

My dearest Maruja:   Your memory will remain with me to the grave and as long as the slightest throb stirs my heart, it will beat for love of you. God has deemed fit to sublimate these worldly affections, ennobling them when we love each other in Him.  Though in my final days, God is my light and what I long for, this does not mean that the recollection of the one dearest to me will not accompany me until the hour of my death.

I am assisted by many priests who- what a sweet comfort- pour out the treasures of grace into my soul, strengthening it. I look death in the eye and, believe my words, it does not daunt me or make me afraid.

My sentence before the court of mankind will be my soundest defense before God’s court; in their effort to revile me, they have ennobled me; in trying to sentence me, they have absolved me, and by attempting to lose me, they have saved me. Do you see what I mean?

Why of course! Because in killing me, they grant me true life, and in condemning me for always upholding the highest ideals of religion, country, and family, they swing open before me the doors of heaven!

My body will be buried in a grave in this cemetery of Jaen; while I am left with only a few hours before that divine  repose, allow me to ask but one thing of your: that in memory of the love we shared, which at this moment is enhanced, that you would take on as your primary objective the salvation of your soul. In that way, we will procure our reuniting in heaven for all eternity, where nothing will separate us.

Goodbye until that moment then, dearest Maruja!  Do not forget that I am looking at you from heaven, and try to be a model Christian woman, since, in the end, worldly goods and delights are of no avail if we do not manage to save our souls.

Bl. Bartolome Blanco Marquez to his dear one as he faced death for his faith in the Spanish Civil War