BL. LUIS FRANCES TOLEDANO - 21 AUGUST

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN AUGUST

Saints celebrated on the 21st August

Prayer to the Angels and the Saints

Heavenly Father, in praising Your Angels and Saints we praise Your glory, for by honouring them we honour You, their Creator. Their splendour shows us Your greatness, which infinitely surpasses that of all creation.

In Your loving providence, You saw fit to send Your Angels to watch over us. Grant that we may always be under their protection and one day enjoy their company in heaven.

Heavenly Father, You are glorified in Your Saints, for their glory is the crowning of Your gifts. You provide an example for us by their lives on earth, You give us their friendship by our communion with them, You grant us strength and protection through their prayer for the Church, and You spur us on to victory over evil and the prize of eternal glory by this great company of witnesses.

Grant that we who aspire to take part in their joy may be filled with the Spirit that blessed their lives, so that, after sharing their faith on earth, we may also experience their peace in heaven. Amen.

BL. LUIS FRANCES TOLEDANO, PRIEST AND MARTYR

Blessed Luis Frances was born in Madrid on February 16, 1910. He joined the Claretians. He was ordained to the priesthood by His Excellency Ramon Font.

THEY SET THE CHURCH ALIGHT

A pious religious and always helpful, Fr Frances deputised for a parish priest, Fr Roig. During the summer 1936, just after he had finished saying holy Mass, the anti-Catholic forces doused the church in petrol and set it alight. This happened during the Civil War that had broken out in Spain.

THE STATIONS OF THE CROSS AND THE HOLY ROSARY

During the ordeal that followed Fr Frances deepened his devotion to the Stations of the Cross and the Holy Rosary. He did not tire of reminding everyone to forgive enemies and thus to follow the example of the Lord.

FORGIVENESS

On August 20, 1936, he was arrested and shot the following day. Before he was murdered, he said that he forgives his killers, and that he is at peace. The later detail was related in a statement by one of the militiamen after the war had ended. 

Fr Frances was beatified on 21 December 2016.