Cistercian Order of the Strict Observance (Trappists)
TWO NUN MARTYRS
from the Cistercian Family in Spain
In July 1936, all the nuns of Fons Salutis, a Cistercian monastery of Bernardine Nuns in Algemesí, near the city of Valencia in Spain, were expelled from their monastery by the communists.
The Mother Abbess, Micaela Baldoví Trull (1869-1936) was much loved by her spiritual daughters, having exercised her authority with a motherly spirit and a deep understanding of human weakness. After the expulsion from her monastery she found shelter in the house of her sister, but three months later the two of them were arrested and led back to the monastery of Fons Salutis, which had been turned into a prison. During the night of November 9, they were forced out of the prison and taken to the crossroad of Benifayó on the highway to Valencia. There they were assassinated. At the end of the war, after much investigation to find the exact place where they were killed, their remains were exhumed and it was found that their two heads were separated from their bodies, leading to the conclusion that the two sisters had been beheaded.
Another nun of Fons Salutis, María de la Natividad Medes Ferris (1880-1936), also found shelter with her family after the expulsion. Her two brothers, both Carmelites, did the same. These three religious, together with a fourth sibling, were also detained in the monastery of Fons Salutis. During the night of November 10, the four of them were led to some unknown place between the towns of Alcira and Carlet and were shot dead.
The cause of Beatification of all these martyrs is well advanced.
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