CAUSATheodosius Raphael…et Socii
The Cause concerns 4 Brothers of the Christian Schools.
Consuegra was a small town of about 14,000 inhabitants, in the province and diocese of Toledo, where the Brothers ran the school of the “Fondación Diaz-Cordovés”. There were only four Brothers: three teachers and one for the kitchen and house services. They were:
1. Hno. Teodosio Rafael (Diodoro López Hernández), Director, 38 years old
2. Hno. Carlos Jorge (Dalmacio Bellota Pérez), 28 years old
3. Hno. Eustaquio Luis (Luis Villanueva Montoya), 48 years old
4. Hno. Felipe José (Pedro Alvarez Pérez), 22 years old
These Brothers were aware of the socio-political situation and the dangers involved, but they were also prepared to accept what God had in store for them.
On 21 July, at about 9 am, while they were in the chapel attending Mass, a group of militiamen gathered in front of the school shouting. Hearing their cries, the chaplain and the Brothers consumed the Eucharist and left the school through a back exit, taking refuge in the house of a neighbour, Don Blas Navarro. When the militia invaded and found no Brothers, they searched other houses. When they reached the house where the Brothers were hiding, they decided it was better to surrender. And they did so without any resistance. On the way to the prison, where there were already other prisoners, they started to prepare for death, because they were sure it would come soon. The militia, there as elsewhere, took a group of prisoners every night and killed them in secluded places, without witnesses.
The Brothers’ hour came on the night of 6-7 August. Militiamen came to the prison, shouted their names, put them in a truck and took them away. They killed them in a place called “Boca de Congosto”, on the border with Los Yébenes (Toledo). Brother Felipe José, the youngest of the Community, did not go with the other three Brothers that night, not because he did not want to share in the martyrdom, but because among the prisoners there was another one with the same name, employed in a religious Community, and they took him. Brother Felipe said that this person was not a Brother and that he was, but they did not listen to him. However, the palm of martyrdom arrived for him the next day, on the night of 7-8 August, in another “pick-up”, done in the usual way. He was killed with others at Fuente de Fresno (Ciudad Real). Iter della Causa
21/11/1957: Beginning of the Diocesan Process super martyrio
19/06/1992: Decree of validity of the Diocesan Process
23/04/1993: Rapporteur: P.Ambrogio Eszer, O.P.
06/02/1995: presentation of the Positio
02/04/2004: Congress of the Theologians
15/11/2005: Plenary of Cardinals and Bishops
28/04/2006: Decree super martyrio
28/10/2007: Beatification (together with others for a total of 498 Martyrs)
Liturgical memorial: November 6