And the disastrous 19th of July dawned for Barcelona…
Until three o’clock in the afternoon we had some hopes, says a sister, but by nightfall, they had all dissipated. Without wasting time, an ambulance was requested, which had providentially been offered to us the day before, to transfer some elderly sisters… more… he didn’t come! There were so many wounded as a result of the shooting all day!
The poor Mother then spent a few moments of terrible agony, at the prospect of leaving our beloved monastery and having to give us the most sad order to leave. At last, putting on courage, she came to the community hall, where we were, and very moved told us to dress as a layman at once, for this time it was very certain that the hour of dispersion had come… he gave a few more dispositions, went down to the porter’s lodge, and, standing in front of the Reglar door, which was already ajar, prepared to bless us as we went out. What moments those were!
The ambulance arrived, but only with room for two and in a hurry. A sister, more than octogenarian, settled there, accompanied by one of the infirmary’s assistants… the other old ladies went on foot, the others following in small groups and with broken hearts after embracing their dearly beloved Mother, who was still in the religious habit.
When there were only four or five sisters left, exhausted with fatigue and emotion, she went in her turn to put on the lay suit… Later he told us that he didn’t even know how he could get dressed. I couldn’t manage to get out, or to leave forever that nest so dear to me…
It was already 9 o’clock when she decided to leave there, accompanied by the respectable Deposed Sister Maria Emmanuel, another sister and a man of complete confidence, to go and spend the night in a house very close to the monastery, in order to move, the next morning, with the provisional sister, to a small apartment that had been given to us in the Rue du Bruch. where we had from the first moment, the oldest and most delicate sisters.
They passed that day with relative tranquility, but on the afternoon of Tuesday the 21st, what a painful impression they did not receive when they heard some women in the street shouting: burn the Salesians, burn the Salesians!
A few hours later, they could see the black smoke from the little apartment. Then the Mother said sweetly: the Lord gave it to us, the Lord took it from us… Without another word coming from his lips.
And here it hurts us very much to have lost a very precious letter that he addressed to a small group of his daughters who had hurried to write to him. After thanking them for their filial expressions and saying a little word about her sorrow, she added with great magnanimity and greatness of soul, which grew in her with sorrows: “Now, my daughters, only words of forgiveness, not a tear, not a complaint, not a sigh, not a lament…, and on the ruins of our monastery, to raise very high the edifice of our holiness…”
A sublime thought that did not abandon her from then on.
From her hiding place, the Mother knew everything that happened to her daughters, and from there she solved changes, transfers and all the difficulties that were accumulating. Thus, Wednesday, July 29, when they were about to sit down at the table, six or seven reds armed with rifles and pistols knocked on the door, rushing into the little apartment. They immediately took the money they found and burned everything they could get their hands on… one of them having torn up some papers, which were drafts of the Mother, saw a word that caught his attention and said: this is bad. He began to look for the pieces on the ground and read that, if we were not virtuous and obedient etc., we would be like the anarchists. This word drove him out of his senses, but as he saw that the sisters were laughing, he read it again, and, understanding, threw it to the ground without saying more. There were some among them who didn’t seem so bad and left saying to be calm, that nothing would happen to them.
With the anguish that is to be expected, the Mother and her companions were left… The doorkeeper told them that they were searching other floors, because they were looking for a priest and that they were afraid of something big.
In fact, not even half an hour had elapsed, when there was another knock at the door, another group of heartless men appeared, stirring everything up and asking for the money. They told them that others had already taken him and that they had no more. They were looking for the alleged millions of the Salesians!
They brought a lady from nearby to check them, but she did it far above, offering herself short for whatever they might need. Men wanted now, only money… at last, they left; but, after a while, they were back there saying that the money had to go out. It was an atrocious tension of mind for Mother and for the sisters who did not know how to get out of the way, because there was no way to convince them. After much altercation, they said goodbye very angry and threatening, but shortly afterwards three other reds entered the flat, one of them still very young, so fearless, that he looked like a fury escaped from hell; a real demon.
The latter, gun in hand, threatening and assuring that he would finish them all if the money did not come out, got in everywhere. He did not understand any reasons and took the provisional sister and made her enter a room and went after her. To the Mother, who wanted to follow them, he gave them a shove saying: leave us, something big is going to happen here. She closed the door and they were inside for a few minutes that seemed like centuries to the poor little Mother. They finally came out after having had the pistol pointed at the throat of the provisional sister, threatening her that, if she did not give him the money, he would shoot…
He stirred everything up again and, not finding the money he wanted, now he had the provisor take off his shoes to see if his shoes had any… and what was he to find, if the others had already taken him!
Vomiting insults and threatening that if the money did not come out he would kill them all, he went away, forbidding them to go out and no one to go to see them; he also said that they should be careful not to communicate by telephone and be careful that the porter brought them something to eat… she was even more frightened than her mother and sisters.
Exhausted by so much fuss and sensations, they sat down to deliberate serenely what they could do…, when, barely a quarter of an hour had elapsed, they called again, introducing themselves to a red, who acted as the chief in the first search, with a signed paper that said they had already registered them and that they should not be bothered any more. Then the mother spoke to him and told everything that had happened to them with the threats of the last visitor. This red said that there should be no seed left of priests and nuns, but whether it was the sweet and kind tone with which the Mother spoke to him or the sight of so many old women, the fact is that he was moved, or rather, that Our Lord touched his heart and said: you have to leave here… Yes, but how? They answered. Do you have houses to go to? Yes. For I will come in the evening and take them two by two wherever they wish. Be prepared. And he left…
They were dumbfounded, but with great confidence in that man, they began to arrange some packages, as few as possible, so as not to attract attention; It was four o’clock in the afternoon.
About five o’clock the brother of the provisor and another good friend of the community went to see them, both being frightened that they should so blindly confide in an unknown red. Butwhat were they going to do if the red himself had told them that, if they stayed in that apartment, they were in great danger?
They were soon dismissed, lest if the importunate visitors returned, something unpleasant would happen to those true friends, who remained in the vicinity watching a little. The Mother and her dear little group, imprisoned by a thousand conflicting fears, and asking God from the depths of their souls not to abandon them, were meanwhile finalizing details.
Evening came, and, true to his promise, the Communist appeared. He was a little nervous, saying that he was risking his life, and he had to be allowed to do his thing in the distribution of the trips. So the first ones left, the Mother and a domestic sister, accompanying them to the car, which was a block away, the provisional sister, who with an oppressed heart saw them leave like an exhalation.
As the red went round and round many times, to mislead, and was slow to return, those who could went by their own foot to familiar houses; and it was already ten o’clock at night when he took the octogenarian sister María Ignacia, helping her to get into the car very carefully, in which one of the good friends who had remained watching got in with them. When they reached the house where they were going, he opened the door of the street very quietly, for it was already very late, and he did not leave his sister until she was seated. The aforementioned friend wanted to give him a tip, but in no way did he want to accept it, saying goodbye very politely… poor thing! He had said that he was risking his life, but it was to save it, because, when Barcelona was liberated, he remembered the nuns and, through the influence of the Mother, his death sentence was commuted. He would have liked to have obtained his grateful heart, but it was not possible. May the Lord, on the other hand, open the eyes of that deceived soul, and give it a taste of the consolations that are found only in God and are a prelude to a happy eternity.
Source and photo: An exemplary visitandin (2) – ReL (religionenlibertad.com)