"A MARTYR" - A MEMBER OF OUR COMMUNITY
		BLESSED JOHN GARCIA MENDEZ SCJ WHO WAS HE? - the eldest of 15 children, born in the province of Avila in Spain - a man of delicate health who had to cope with infirmity all during his life - a man who longed for solitude and contemplation, yet ended up travelling the roads of Spain in obedience to his superiors - a man of shy and gentle disposition, of profound humility, and no stranger to fear - yet a man of unshakable courage who found himself imprisoned and executed during the Spanish Civil War because he publicly declared himself to be a priest and denounced the desecration of a church and its contents. His martyrdom took place on 23 August 1936.
						WHAT KEPT HIM GOING?
					- love for the Eucharist, devotion to Mary, fidelity to the spirit of total abandonment to God's ways according to the teaching of Fr John Leo Dehon, founder of the Sacred Heart Fathers. He was beatified on 11 March 2001.