The Roma who died for their religion: Ceferino - the first beatified Roma
During the Spanish Civil War, a multifaceted conflict of class struggle, war of religion, confrontation of opposing nationalisms, struggle between military dictatorship and republican democracy, between revolution and counterrevolution, between fascism and communism, there were over half a million lives lost. One of those victims was a Roma from Spain, a Roman Catholic catechist and activist for Spanish Romani causes named Ceferino Giménez Malla, also known as “El Pelé”. He was the first Roma to have been beatified.
The Spanish Civil War was a civil war in Spain fought from 1936 to 1939. Republicans loyal to the left-leaning Second Spanish Republic, in alliance with anarchists, of the communist and syndicalist variety, fought against a revolt by the Nationalists, an alliance of Falangists, monarchists, conservatives and Catholics, led by a military group among whom General Francisco Franco soon achieved a preponderant role. After the victory of the Nationalist side, Franco became the leader of the dictatorship which ruled Spain until his death, in 1975.
On a 9 of August of 1936, the militiamen of the Republican side (the revolutionaries), shot him in the town of Barbastro, in Spain, along with 18 other people, mostly priests and believers. He was a humble man, described by many as a good person, who had no active position in regarding the civil war. He had the opportunity to deny his faith and save his life but, before the execution squad, he raised his rosary and shouted: "Long live Christ the King!"
He had been arrested 15 days before that because when he saw that the revolutionaries were taking away and attacking a priest he yelled at them: “Cowards! You need so many people to put a priest into jail?” The militiamen emptied his pockets, finding a rosary. He was taken, with the priest, to an impromptu jail: the Capuchin convent, where there were already 350 detainees. His adopted daughter, Pepita, brought food for him to jail every day. In prison, everyone prayed, but Pele was tireless in prayer, and became a leader of faith for the detainees. The jailers were very angry with that and many of the prisoners advised him to be more discreet and "prudent." As he had a humble life, not being a figure of an important political influence, his family asked Eugenio Sopena, an influential anarchist of the Revolutionary Committee, to release him. Sopena did his best, but he was told that Ceferino was influencing other prisoners from a religious point of view. Both Sopena and Pepita asked him to give up his rosary and not to show himself as such a Catholic person, but he never listened to them. He would never give up his religious beliefs, not even if it costed his life. And so it did. On May 4, 1997 Ceferino Giménez Malla was beatified by Pope John Paul II who said that Malla "knew how to sow harmony and solidarity among his own, also mediating conflicts that sometimes blur the relationship between non-Roma and Roma, showing Christ's love knows no boundaries of race or culture." Approximately 3,000 Roma attended the beatification ceremony in Rome, some travelling from as far away as Slovakia and Brazil. He was the first Romani martyr to have been beatified.
