Memorial Mass for the Martyrs of the Servants of Mary

Most Reverend José H. Gomez
Archbishop of Los Angeles 

Servants of Mary, Ministers of the Sick
Los Angeles, California
December 4, 2021

My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, and especially you, my dear Servants of Mary, Ministers to the Sick:¹

Today we celebrate the 85th anniversary of the martyrdoms of your heroic sisters during the bloody persecution of the Church during the civil war in Spain. 

“The blood of martyrs is the seed of the Church.” This expression from the early Church has been true from the Roman Empire in the time of the Apostles, through the horrors of revolutionary Spain in the 1930s. 

It remains true in our own day — when so many martyrs are being made in so many countries all over the world. 

The holy blood of God’s servants continues to be shed by those who persecute the Church. But God is not mocked. He brings good out of evil.² In the darkness of our world, God makes his light to shine. From the valleys of death, God raises up new life. 

The Church rises stronger in the middle of persecution, and she is renewed in the offering of those who lose their lives for the sake of the Gospel. 

As we heard in that glorious first reading: “They conquered … by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; love for life did not deter them from death. Therefore, rejoice, you heavens and you who dwell in them!” 

So, today is a day of rejoicing. For God gives the victory to his martyrs, the crown of glory. 

The names of your sisters — Blessed Aurelia, Blessed Daria, Blessed Agustina, and Blessed Aurora — are written in heaven.³

These dear sisters knew the risks, they counted the high cost of discipleship.⁴ They understood that they were ministering in a time when it was deadly dangerous to be a Catholic, when the Church was hunted and believers — especially bishops, priests, religious — were being slaughtered.

But they did not turn back, they kept their eyes fixed on Jesus. 

They trusted in Jesus, trusted in his promise that we heard in the Gospel today: “Do not be afraid! … Everyone who acknowledges me before others, I will acknowledge before my heavenly Father.”

These courageous women refused to deny Jesus! They refused to deny that they were religious sisters — even though they knew admitting that would cost them their lives. The revolutionaries tracked them down, and finally, sometime during the night in the early days of December in 1936, they were executed in Madrid.

These four sisters were women of action, they were women of love. They did not leave us a great legacy of spiritual writings. But their lives were a word from God. 

Blessed Daria once said: “I desire the martyrdom of daily sacrifice and if God so wills it, also that of death — to die as a martyr for him.”⁵

That is their message to us. Our Catholic faith calls us to sacrifice, to self-denial, to imitate Jesus Christ in our love. 

We are not all called to be martyrs like your courageous sisters. But we are all called to follow Jesus, and to imitate his love, wherever we find ourselves, right where we are at. 

It is not easy to follow Jesus, we all know that. It takes faith and hope and love — and it takes courage. 

Often that courage is hidden, it is known only to our loved ones, to the people we serve. It is a beautiful image that Blessed Daria gives us — “the martyrdom of daily sacrifice.”

So, we ask our holy sisters today to intercede for us, that we might always have the courage to proclaim and to live out our faith in Jesus Christ. 

We ask their prayers, too, for the millions of people in countries throughout the world, who are persecuted for their faith today. May God give strength and comfort to all those who are suffering for his name!

So, as we honor the memory of your martyrs, let us ask Our Lord to strengthen us so that we can take up our cross again today, and every day, and continue to give our lives to serve his Gospel.  

And let us ask Holy Mary, Health of the Sick, intercede for all of us and for the universal Church — that the blood of these martyrs might become the seed of a new birth of love in our hearts and in our world. 

1.  Readings: Rev. 12:10–12a; Matt. 10:28–33.

2. Gal. 6:7; Gen. 50:20. 

3.  Blessed Aurelia Arambarri Fuente, Blessed Daria Andiarena Sagaseta, Blessed Agustina Pena Rodriguez, and Blessed Aurora Lopez Gonzalez; among the 522 Spanish Martyrs, beatified by Pope Francis, October 13, 2103.

4.   Luke 14:28.

5.   http://www.sisterservantsofmary.org/about-us/sisters-in-process-of-canonization/martyr-sisters/; https://www.siervasdemariacastilla.com/contenido/Martires.html.