THEY CHOSE TO DIE RATHER THAN LIVE AS IF GOD DID NOT EXIST
Next Wednesday, October 9, we will celebrate at St. Pius X Parish the feast of the Blessed María Teresa Ferragud, Sister María Jesús, Sister María Verónica, Sister Josefina de la Purificación, and Sister Felicidad Masiá. As you know, mother and daughters were martyrs of the religious persecution of 1936, and their bodies rest at the altar of the Chapel of the Blessed Sacrament in our parish.
Tertullian said that the blood of martyrs is a seed of Christians, and in St. Pius X Parish, the fruitful bodies of these heroic and faith-filled women await the resurrection. In their human frailty, they gave their lives out of love for Christ. An elderly mother, together with her four contemplative daughters, was encouraged to renounce the Catholic faith, and in their calm yet steadfast refusal, they were executed because they chose to die rather than live as if God did not exist. God’s love for us is so great that, though we are fragile, sinful, and tremendously vulnerable, He transforms us into witnesses and heroes.
I want to invite you to come to the source where all of this took place. I want to invite you to come to the feast. I encourage you, just as you are and as you live your faith, to stand before María Teresa and her daughters. In this way, their holiness will awaken yours, their fruitfulness will inspire in you a desire for God, and the contemplation of what Christ was able to do with them will fill you with hope, because only He has the power to do that, too, with you.
If you have been called to a life of faith and have doubts, drink from the same source as these women. They shed their blood and gave their lives like Christ so that it may be confirmed in your heart that you are loved, saved, called, and sent.
This year, we begin a new way of celebrating this feast. On Wednesday, October 9, we will all gather at 10 a.m. at St. Pius X Parish. There, we will pray Morning Prayer, and afterward, we will make a pilgrimage to the place where María Teresa and her daughters were martyred, near the Alzira market. The pilgrimage will start from St. Pius X Parish, and we will stop at Sant Jaume Parish, where we will venerate Blessed Josefa Naval Girbés, teacher of Blessed María Teresa. From Sant Jaume, we will go to the Chapel of La Troballa, the home of the Virgin Mary, from where these women consecrated their lives and became a source of health for all humanity. Praying the rosary and accompanied by their relics, we will continue to the place where they became Christ’s wheat, where they offered their lives. There, we will proclaim our faith, present our prayers, and give glory to God. At the end, there will be a car service to return to Algemesí. In the afternoon, we will joyfully celebrate the Eucharist at 7:30 p.m.
And when this feast concludes and we have enjoyed this day, let us sit, reflect, and pray with this passage from St. Peter.
“Therefore, brothers, be all the more eager to make your calling and election firm. For if you do this, you will never stumble, and you will be richly provided an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” 2Pe 1,10-11
Both the Parish of St. Pius X in Algemesí and I await you.
Óscar Benavent Calatayud
parish priest
PARISH OF ST. PIUS X
Feast of the Blessed María Teresa and Her Daughters, Martyrs
9th October 2024
10:00 am: Morning Prayer at the Parish.
At the end of the veneration of the relics, the pilgrimage begins
First Stop: Angelus at the Minor Basilica
Second stop: Troballa’s Chapel.
Next, in silence, we will pray the rosary,while walking to the site of the martyrdom.
Prayer at the Site of the Martyrdom.
19:30 pm: Eucharistic Celebration, at the parish.
At the end of the Eucharist, the holy card of the martyrs, along with the second-class relic will be distributed to those present.
