Spanish persecution survivors reveal hidden stories of faith and resistance

Anti-Christian violence claimed the lives of numerous clergy, religious, and lay Catholics in Spain during the 1930s, producing one of the most extensively studied chapters in the modern history of the Church.

The memory of that religious persecution, however, has largely been constructed around its martyrs, leaving in the background those who endured the same brutality but did not receive the palm of martyrdom.

A new book by Spanish priest and theologian Monsignor Melchor Sánchez de Toca Alameda brings to light the stories of Catholics who survived the upheaval and violence of those years.

Published in Spanish by publishing house Didaskalos under the title “Los mártires que no fueron. Salvados, clandestinos, refugiados, evadidos y muertos de la persecución religiosa en España (1936–1939)” (“The Martyrs Who Were Not: Survivors, Underground Catholics, Refugees, Escapees and Victims of Religious Persecution in Spain, 1936–1939”), the book recounts the experiences of people who escaped death, lived in hiding, fled dangerous areas, or died during the Spanish Civil War under circumstances that did not meet the Church’s criteria for martyrdom.

Sánchez de Toca, a relator at the…