ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN SEPTEMBER
Saints celebrated on the 18th of September
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. CARLOS ERANA GURUCETA, MARTYR
Carlos Erana Guruceta was born on November 2, 1884 in Aozaraza-Arechavaleta, the third child of six children of a pious family of peasant-shepherds.
Following the example of some of his companions who had preceded him in this choice, Carlos expressed the desire to enter the postulate that the Marianists had recently opened in Escoriaza, after having bought and adapted an old disused bathhouse for this use.
HE ENTERED THE POSTULATE OF THE MARIANISTS
Having entered it with the clear intention of embracing religious life, he was immediately appreciated by his educators for his serenity, goodness of mind, common sense, strong character, a marked tendency to reflect, transparency in relationships and sincere piety that distinguished him.
At the age of 18 he entered the novitiate of Vitoria, where he began a journey of interior life which he continued to follow for the duration of his life.
With the profession of first vows, on September 9, 1903, becoming part of a congregation placed entirely under the auspices of Mary, he consecrated himself body and soul to her.
"THE SOLE PURPOSE OF MY LIFE"
He now prepared himself to become master at the Teaching Institute of Vitoria, which provided the necessary qualifications for elementary teaching.
As a religious, Brother Carlos kept faith with the ideal that he had proposed since his novitiate, and which he briefly reiterated in the letter in which he asked to be admitted to the profession of perpetual vows: "I want the service of God and of Mary, his most holy Mother, to constitute the sole purpose of my life. And the most suitable means to achieve this seem to me to be found in the Society of Mary".
"HE NEVER GAVE US A BAD EXAMPLE"
As an educator, he was able to earn the esteem and affection of the pupils and their families. One of his former students was able to give him the following testimony: "We loved him and esteemed him very much... In boarding school he made it compulsory to say the rosary on Saturdays and considered absence from Sunday mass as a transgression. He himself presided over the rosary very calmly... He never gave us a bad example... He distinguished himself for the charity with which he treated teachers and pupils... He used to visit the families of the pupils and the poor".
RELIGIOUS PERSECUTION
When the civil war broke out in July 1936, which led to an exacerbation of religious persecution, Brother Carlos was at his place of work in Madrid as director of the elementary schools of the Pilar college.
On July 24 the 'red' militiamen requisitioned the college and the community was forced to disperse. Brother Carlos was arrested twice and then released.
HE LEFT MADRID
Feeling hunted in Madrid, he decided to go to Ciudad Real, capital of the famous region of La Mancha, with the hope of finding there protection from alumni of the Popular School, which he had directed for eleven years and where the memory of him was still alive.
After an eventful journey, which was about to cost him his life, he arrived in Ciudad Real on July 29, but there he found the two Marianist colleges requisitioned and the communities dispersed, while in the city there was a climate of real reprisal against priests and religious.
HE WAS ARRESTED
He thus lived a long month of trial, maintaining a great inner serenity unaltered. "It will be what God wills - he used to say - besides, what can they still do to me? Kill me!"
On September 6 of the same year he was arrested by the militiamen and interned in the 'people's house' in isolation. Although aware of the mortal danger that loomed over him, he spent twelve days quiet and completely abandoned to the will of God.
COMPLETELY ABANDONED TO THE WILL OF GOD
The day before he died he expressed the desire to be able to confess to a priest, but it was not granted.
On the night of September 18 he was taken from prison with other companions in misfortune and shot near Alarcos, a few kilometers from the city. His body, along with that of all the others, was thrown into a common grave.
He was beatified by Pope John Paul II on Sunday October 1, 1995 and his liturgical memorial was set for September 18, the date of his martyrdom.
(Excerpts translated from the Italian, original text from Osservatore Romano, October 1, 1995)
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