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The Catalan Carlist Antonio Tort Reixach (1895-1936), a jeweler by profession, father of 13 children, and a member of the Traditionalist Communion, will be beatified on Saturday, November 23, 2024, at 11 a.m., at the Basilica of the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, alongside the priest from Sabadell, mossèn Gaietà Clausellas Ballvé (1863-1936), known as “the father of the poor” due to his immense and self-sacrificing work for them.
Both were martyred during the religious persecution unleashed by revolutionary forces against Catholics in 1936, in what the conciliar Church now improperly refers to with the progressive substitute “the Spanish martyrs of the 20th century” [sic].
This politically correct term has not prevented both beatifications from being silenced by the nationalist and socialist Catalan press, as the lives and deaths of these martyrs represent an authentic historical memory that contradicts the false official narrative imposed by current civil and religious authorities. This authority aims to obscure, or even justify, the brutal religious persecution perpetrated against Catalan Catholics by the president of the (misnamed) Generalitat, the Freemason Lluís Companys, of ERC. He established the “Central Committee of Anti-Fascist Militias” on July 21, 1936, made up of communist, anarchist, and ERC militiamen who were armed and authorized to detain, and in practice, execute those arrested.
This religious persecution particularly targeted those Catholics who served and helped the poor and needy, as is the case with these two martyrs who will be beatified on November 23.
The Heroic Virtues of Antonio Tort
From the reports of Mons. Francisco Muñoz Alarcón (R.I.P.), canon and Vice-Postulator for Antonio Tort’s cause for beatification, we know the following details:
Don Antonio Tort Reixach was born in Monistrol de Montserrat, in the then-diocese of Barcelona (today in Sant Feliu), on March 29, 1895. Son of Jaime and Ana, he married Doña María Gavín Sagardía on August 12, 1917, with whom he had 13 children.
Don Antonio lived with his parents, wife, children, and his unmarried brother Francisco de Paula (also a member of the Traditionalist Communion) at Calle del Call, number 17, in Barcelona, near Plaza de Sant Jaume in the Cathedral Quarter, now inaccurately referred to as the “Gothic Quarter.” The family home and his jewelry workshop, with which he supported his family, were located there.
His distinguishing virtue was charity, both corporal and spiritual. Every Sunday and holy day, he attended Mass and received Communion early in the morning, after which he went to the Anti-Tuberculosis Sanatorium of the Holy Spirit in Sant Adrià del Besós to care for the sick until noon. Upon returning home and after lunch, he would go to Our Lady of Mercy Parish to teach catechism to children, keeping them entertained all afternoon until dinner.
His devotions included the Sacred Heart of Jesus through Eucharistic worship (he received Communion daily and attended his monthly night vigil shift) and the Blessed Virgin (in her titles of Our Lady of Mercy, Montserrat, and the Rosary). He practiced devotion to the Rosary with his family and privately while walking.
He was a major benefactor of the Pious Union of Saint Michael the Archangel and a distinguished bearer of the Holy Christ of Barcelona. Each month, he distributed alms to various discreet poor through his confessor, also supporting a Catholic teacher who taught impoverished children in a working-class neighborhood in Barcelona.
The Revolution of 1936 and Hiding of the Bishop of Barcelona in His Inicio
In the 1930s, Carlism in Catalonia was a significant popular movement. Its gatherings, or Aplechs, drew thousands of fellow Carlists, organized into numerous Círculos, Athenæums, worker guilds (their founder, Ramón Sales Amenós, was also from Barcelona and a contemporary of Antonio Tort), militias such as the Requeté, and their ideals and activities were promoted in various daily and weekly publications.
When the civic-military Uprising occurred on July 18, 1936, Antonio Tort was in Monistrol de Montserrat at his summer home, so he could not join the action on July 19, 1936, in defense of the 7th Light Infantry Barracks and the Artillery Park of San Andrés in Barcelona.
From Monistrol de Montserrat, Antonio walked to Barcelona to aid the Church, a primary target of the Revolution.
“Are we Catholics to stand by while churches and religious houses burn without doing anything to stop it?” he asked his worried mother upon arriving in the city.
Providentially, on Tuesday morning, July 21, 1936, he encountered Bishop Dr. Irurita leaving the Palace through the hidden door leading to San Felipe Neri, not knowing where to go and accompanied by his relative Marcos Goñi. Despite his large family, Antonio took the Bishop and his relative to his home on Calle del Call, number 17. They were not the first refugees he had sheltered; he had also taken in five Carmelite Sisters of Charity – one of whom was elderly and ill – religious women founded by Saint Joaquina de Vedruna, also a Carlist and of Carlist descent.
But Antonio was calm. “A reason, the main one, for his unshakable peace in those days was that nothing could happen in his house because he considered himself unworthy of martyrdom, of that singular grace for which, according to him, he had done nothing to deserve,” Mons. Francisco Muñoz noted in his reports.
They remained hidden and secluded in the Tort home for over four months, in absolute discretion, from Tuesday, July 21 to Tuesday, December 1, 1936. During that time – and as Sister María Torres describes – there was a spirit of piety and spiritual reflection in the house, shared by the entire family and the other refugees. Each day, the Bishop celebrated Mass at 6:15 a.m., during which the refugees received Communion and then gave thanks during the next Mass, celebrated by mossèn Goñi. In the afternoon, they prayed the Rosary together, and after dinner, the religious women retired to their room, and the family conversed with the Bishop for a while. Every night, from a window, Bishop Irurita blessed the city, which was terrorized by the militias.
During that time, the last of Antonio Tort’s thirteen children was born. He was baptized by Reverend Marcos Goñi and sponsored by Bishop Irurita on September 3, 1936.
(To be continued)
Josep de Losports, Círculo Tradicionalista Ramón Parés y Vilasau (Barcelona)
Translated by the Gremio San Jerónimo
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