Jaime Hilario Barbal

Saint
Jaime Hilario Barbal, FSC
Born 2 January 1889
Enviny, Spain
Died 18 January 1937
Tarragona, Spain
Venerated in Roman Catholic Church
Beatified 29 April 1990 by Pope John Paul II
Canonized 21 November 1999 by Pope John Paul II
Feast 28 January

Jaime (James) Hilario Barbal, F.S.C. (2 January 1889, Enviny, Province of Lleida – 18 January 1937), was a Catalan member of the Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools. After nearly 20 years of serving as a teacher in the schools of his religious institute, he was caught up in the turmoil of the Spanish Civil War, and executed by forces of the Second Spanish Republic. He is now honored as a saint and martyr of the Catholic Church.

Life

Born Manuel Barbal i Cosín in the Catalan town of Enviny, near the Pyrenees in northern Spain, he entered a minor seminary at age 12 for the Diocese of Urgel. He soon, however, developed hearing problems and was forced to withdraw from the school.

In 1917, Barbal was accepted by the Christian Brothers and began his novitiate in Irun, where he was given the religious name of Jaime Hilario (James Hilary). He spent the next 16 years in various teaching assignments and was regarded as an exceptional teacher. His hearing problems continued to persist and worsen and by the early 1930s he was forced to stop teaching completely and began work as a gardener at the House of Formation of Saint Joseph in Tarragona.

At the outbreak of the civil war in July 1936, while traveling to visit his family at Enviny, Barbal was arrested for being a member of a religious Order. By December, he was transferred to a prison ship "Mahon" at Tarragona. Although he could have claimed that he was a gardener, he insisted that he was a religious and in January 1937 was tried and convicted for being a member of the Christian Brothers.

Br. Jaime Hilario was taken to Monte de los Olivos, an olive grove, near the cemetery, in Tarragona, for execution by firing squad.[1] When two volleys from the firing squad failed to harm Barbal, the firing squad commander shot him at close range. His last words were: “To die for Christ, my young friends, is to live.” He was the first of 97 Christian Brothers killed in Catalonia during the Spanish Civil War.

Veneration

The cause for Barbal's canonization was linked to that of the Martyrs of Turon, a group composed mostly of Brothers of the Christian Schools killed in a separate incident in 1934. He was beatified on 29 April 1990, by Pope John Paul II, and canonized by that same pope on 21 November 1999, with the other members of the group.

Barbal's feast day is celebrated by the Brothers on 28 January.

External links

References

  1. ↑ "Barbal Cosan, Jaime (James) Hilario, St.". The New Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 2 (Baa-Cam) (2nd ed.). Farmington Hills MI: Thomson Gale. 2003. p. 88.
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