Saint Inocencio of Mary Immaculate, born Emanuele Canoura Arnau, a member of the Passionist Congregation and martyr of the Spanish Civil War, born on March 10, 1887 in Santa Cecelia del Valle de Oro in Galicia, Spain; died October 9, 1934. Canonized by Pope John Paul II in 1999. 

LIFE

He was born on March 10th 1887 at S. Cecilia del Valle de Oro, near the Cantabrian coast in the province of Lugo (Galicia) and joined the Passionist seminary at the age of 14 at Pefiafiel, near Valladolid.   He joined the Passionist Congregation at Deusto (Guiscaglia) and then continued his philosophy and theology.  At Mieres, not far from Turón, he was given the sub-diaconate in 1910, the diaconate in 1912 and was ordained priest in 1920.   As a priest he preached missions and also taught in various schools.  While he was in Mieres he had been asked by the Salesian Brothers to hear the confessions of the children in their school as they prepared for their First Communion. This was at the time of the so-called "Revolution of Asturias" when communists and anti-clericalists had risen up against the Spanish government.

MARTYRDOM

In 1934 the Brothers at the school in Turon asked him to come and hear the confessions of the children of the school in preparation for the first Friday of the month.  At dawn on Friday October 5th 1934 militiamen forced their way into the Brothers' school and Father Inocencio underwent the same fate as the Brothers of the community.  Alongside the Brothers, Father Inocencio was imprisoned in the so-called "House of the People" where they would await the judgment of the revolutionaries' committee.  They were condemned to death and were to be executed.  In the early hours of October 9th, 1934 they were all executed by a firing squad, their bodies buried in a common grave.

CANONIZATION

Inocencio and his eight fellow martyrs were declared venerable in 1989, beatified on April 19,1990, then canonized on November 21, 1999 by Pope John Paul II.

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