In July 1936, Angel Prat Hostench along with other religious were discovered while trying to escape persecution at the Tarrega railway station. Together with Prat were three priests, five students, one lay brother and two novices. Later in August, Carmelite nun Sister Maria del Patrocinio — after escaping her burning monastery — was shot by militia. Further Carmelites brothers and priests were killed in October and November following inhumane interrogations and treatment. These Carmelites were among 498 martyrs of the Spanish civil war, beatified by Pope Benedict XVI in 2007.
Angelus was one of the first Carmelites to come to Sicily from Mount Carmel. According to trustworthy sources, he was killed by unbelievers in Licata during the first half of the thirteenth century. Acclaimed as a martyr, his body was placed in a church built on the site of his death. Only in 1632 were his relics transferred to the Carmelite Church. Veneration of St.
Born in Erice near Trapani in Sicily about the middle of the 15th century. Aloysius joined the Carmelites and became prior of the reformed convent in Randazzo. There he died in 1490 from a head wound, forgiving his attacker and refusing to reveal his identity.
George Preca was a Maltese Roman Catholic priest who founded the Society of Christian Doctrine, a society of lay catechists. In Malta, he is known as “Dun Gorg” and is popularly referred to as the “Second Apostle of Malta,” after Paul of Tarsus. On July 21, 1918, St. George was received into the Carmelite Third Order and one year later, on July 26, 1919, he made his profession.
Simon, an Englishman, died at Bordeaux in the mid-thirteenth century. He has been venerated in the Carmelite Order for his personal holiness and his devotion to Our Lady. A liturgical celebration in his honor was observed locally in the fifteenth century, and later extended to the whole Order.
Joachina was born in Barcelona in 1783. She married Theodore de Mas in 1799 and bore him nine children before being widowed in 1816. Then in 1826 she was prompted by God’s Spirit to found the Congregation of Carmelite Sisters of Charity, which spread throughout Catalonia, establishing houses for the care of the sick and the education of children, especially the poor.
Born in Florence in 1566, St. Mary Magdalene d’Pazzi had a religious upbringing and entered the monastery of the Carmelite nuns there. She led a hidden life in prayer and self-denial, praying particularly for the renewal of the Church and encouraging the sisters in holiness. Her life was marked by many extraordinary graces. She died in 1607.
