Publio Rodríguez Moslares

Who they were

Publio Rodríguez was born at Tiedra, in the diocese of Valladolid, on 12 November 1912, the youngest and best-loved of his family; his devout mother struggled between her hope of a priest son and the pain of his leaving home, to which he wrote, "It is God who wants it, mother; don't suffer and don't make me suffer. Be generous and give to God what belongs to Him before it belongs to you." His companions remembered him as the joker of the community, singing, laughing, composing verses and telling stories; even in prison, sharing a cell with several other scholastics, they wrote a comedy in verse together to make captivity more bearable.

A fellow prisoner recalled him as good-natured, open and a natural evangelist who worked hard to bring two of his brothers, otherwise good men but unsympathetic to his faith, back to religion, and who longed to go on mission, a spirit he passed on especially to his sister, a schoolteacher. Seeing him off at the station as he left for the novitiate, his mother recalled, he gave her a small crucifix and told her: "Kiss it often, and whatever happens, remember that all we suffer for Him, however much it seems, is little compared with how much He loves us and suffered for us." After a first imprisonment he took refuge with some Oblate companions at the home of a family they knew, but had to leave again for the family's safety; as he left, he told the woman of the house, "Don't worry, I'll come back, but if something happens to me or they kill me, know that I'll be with God and I'll help you" — seeming certain, she said, that he would be killed. He was shot at Paracuellos de Jarama; his mother later found the cell where he had been held, its wall bearing words picked out in red: "Mamma, they are taking me to kill me, I die for God... Don't cry, I go with God... Long live Christ the King!," signed Publio. He was beatified on 17 December 2011.

The miracles

As a martyr he was raised to the altars without a miracle.

Why that counted as sanctity

Young Oblate scholastic known for his cheerful, missionary spirit, shot during the Spanish Civil War persecution at Paracuellos de Jarama; beatified in 2011.

The cause