MADRID — Father Josep Guardiet Pujol, known as the “smiling priest,” will be among the 522 Spanish Civil War martyrs to be beatified in Tarragona, Spain, on Oct. 13.
A pastor of the Catalan parish of Sant Pere de Rubi, Father Pujol was martyred on Aug. 3, 1936, in the northern Spanish town of Sant Cugat del Valles.
“Josep Guardiet Pujol was an exemplary pastor throughout his life and at the time of his martyrdom as well,” Maria Pilar Adin, the postulator of the priest’s cause, told the Spanish bishops’ news agency SIC.
The priest “died forgiving those who killed him,” she said. He pleaded that his killers not shoot two other laymen from the town of Rubi, but they also died with him.
“He is an example of serenity and love for Christ and for his parishioners,” Adin said.
Father Pujol is still remembered as “the smiling priest.”
“He had a serene and confident smile,” Adin said. “As ‘a father of the poor,’ he had nothing of his own. He gave everything to those most in need.”
During his life, the priest was committed to various cultural initiatives. He helped support night schools for girls, seminaries and a federation of Christian youth in Catalonia.
Hundreds of Catholics killed during the bloody Spanish Civil War have already been beatified. Pope Benedict XVI’s October 2007 beatification of 498 Spanish martyrs was one of the largest beatifications ever conducted.
Father Pujol’s cause for beatification was opened in February 1959, but it faced initial delays. In 1989, the Holy See ruled that inquiry into the priest’s cause could continue. The diocesan phase of the inquiry concluded on July 5, 1994, at the parish of Sant Pere de Rubi. The decree on his martyrdom was officially approved on July 5, 2013.
Adin said that Father Pujol is an example of forgiveness and above all a witness of the Gospel unto death.
She said that the priest had a premonition of his own martyrdom, saying “Rubi, Rubi, who can live in your town and shed his blood for you? I feel this apostolic desire.”