Juan Antonio Calabuig Ferre, Official Chronicler of Mariola
It has been said and written about the recovery of historical memory, referring to the cruel civil war that ended ago seventy-eight years .And all citizens should be fully agree in condemning without reservation or palliative all kinds of crimes, excesses, abuses and violations of human rights, they were committed in those difficult times, and in many places of the Iberian Peninsula, whatever their authors, his political activism, their ideological leanings or religious beliefs. In other words: remember with maximum precision and objectivity and as gently as possible, everything that happened, in tribute to all the innocent victims of the two warring sides in a relentless war and prior periods and later.
It is positive, thus, and the prospect of elapsed time, disclose some details of those unfortunate episodes. Precisely because we do not want repeated acts and behaviors related to an explosive cocktail in which terrible ingredients are combined (death, violence, fanaticism, sectarianism, injustice, intolerance, revenge, envy, hate, retaliation, vandalism and repression), we must know what happened in our country, our own people. From the knowledge of the truth and the condemnation of all attacks on freedom, justice and peaceful coexistence, we can speak properly of oblivion, forgiveness and reconciliation, improvement of our democratic system.
Eighty-one years after the start of the Civil War, we have the right and obligation to know what happened in our environment. Because in our beloved town of Banyeres peaceful coexistence she snapped and committed unimaginable atrocities, from murder to destructions in the historical and artistic heritage. Emerged fear, fear and terror, and freedom and the rule of law was lost was he saw trampled by a minority of violent people.
in Bathtubs, The Catholic Church suffered a harsh and relentless persecution by a minority of fanatics beings and angry, who would not consent to our temple, dedicated to Mercy, was the meeting point of the believers.
The parish priest of care Bathtubs, since 1930 (appointment published in the Official Gazette of the Archbishopric of Valencia 25 April 1930) Don Jose Hurtado was Santarrufina, that left a mark deep, its solid formation, for his strong personality, for his great humanity and its effective management to the front of the local Catholic community. To my parents (those who married in 1932), I always heard very well of this priest born in Vinalesa (Valencia) the 16 March 1894, and it was linked to Banyeres since the beginning of his career as a priest. The director of the weekly charge "Paraula" Communication and the Archbishopric of Valencia, Luis Agudo, and the priest Don Ramon Fita provided us a summary of his brilliant "curriculum" ecclesiastical.
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José Santarrufina was ordained a priest on May 1 of 1917. And his first destination, as a priest, It was our people, since the day 16 in the same year he was named coadjutor of the parish of Santa Maria, Bathtub, by the Archbishop of Valencia. Was twenty-three.
He was Doctor in Theology from the Pontifical University since 31 from December to 1917, that is, from the same year he first came to our villa. In the year 1921 He obtained a doctorate degree in canon law from the Pontifical University thereby completing a solid academic and theological formation that enabled him performing exercises in charge repeatedly spiritual, since 1921 (in Alaquás, in the retreat house of the Jesuit Fathers), until November 1935 when, and being pastor of Banyeres, He directed the Spiritual Exercises held in the Convent of the Holy Spirit Mt. (Holy Spirit), Vest (Valencia).
After spending short periods as a curate in the parishes of Albuixech and Villalonga he was assigned to the parish of Mercy, Campanar (Valencia). The 10 of January of 1922 He was named pastor of Favareta (in the region of La Ribera Baixa of the Xúquer).
And the 25 April 1930 He was appointed pastor of the church of Santa Maria, Bathtub, Thirteen years after having reached the same as coadjutor. He was the new pastor 36 years. In 1942 He took care, in Valencia, the creation of the new parish of the Good Shepherd.
Santarrufina father drove the Brotherhood of San Jorge and greatly helped those most in need.
Its effective religious work was well known at the level of the Archbishopric of Valencia. And it is not surprising that he was invited by the priests Don Eladio Navarro Spain (Rector of the Royal College of Corpus Christi, popularly known as the Patriarca, From Valencia) and Don Antonio Rodilla, (rector of the Colegio Mayor San Juan de Ribera, Burjassot), to participate in the organization and coordination of a retreat in the monastery of Lluch, on the island of Mallorca, valentina belonging to the ecclesiastical province.
In those years also they involved other priests, as he related by the investigator prestigious religious Don Vicente Carcel Orti in the biographical book of the aforementioned parent Spain, whose third edition has recently seen the light. The other priests were Don José Granell Cardo (Swedish), Jose Garcia Grau and Don Bernardo Carreres (Alzira). In his book (page 34) expressly states that, in that select group of clerics, was "Don Jose Santarrufina, pastor of Bañeres ".
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23 April 1932
Twenty-six priests and students indicated Valencians (university and sixth-'s degree and pre-university, you aged between 16 and the 21 year old), They embarked in the port of Valencia at dusk from the 9 July 1936. After a brief stopover in Ibiza, the expedition reached the port of Palma de Mallorca at noon of the 10 July 1936. They subsequently moved Bus, to the monastery of Lluch (in the municipality of Escorca, in the rugged Sierra de Tramuntana). And in the monastery (which is dedicated to the patron of Mallorca, Virgen de Lluch), those exercised provided spiritual held. We have had the opportunity to interview the sole survivor of that large group of Valencians Catholic: Don José Castillo Frasquet. This pharmaceutical veteran (He born in Algemesí ago 98 years) He was then 16 years old and had studied sixth degree in the school of the Franciscan Fathers, Ontinyent, when he moved to Mallorca. Mr. Castell, retaining a prodigious memory, He described us with precision, stay on the island balear, perfectly remembering the names of priests and students.
But stay in Mallorca is far lasted longer than expected, because the ship on which they had embarked to return to Valencian lands no longer set sail. The 18 July 1936 Civil War broke out and maritime communications between the Balearic Islands and the mainland were interrupted. Mallorca was included in the so-called national zone, while the current Valencia remained in the Republican zone. Valencians group had to return to the monastery of Lluch, joining the entourage two other priests (Canons of the Cathedral of Valencia Vicente Calatayud Guillermo Perales and Don Hijarrubia) they also failed to return to Valencia.
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February of 1932
After a month and a half stay in Lluch, They decided divided into two parts: Knee father and nine students were provisionally established in the city of Inca, hosted by a local family, led by Don Valentin Salas notice and his wife, Amparo Itúrbide. Priests Spain, Granell, Santarruflna, García, Degree, Civera, Calatayud and Hijarrubia, students and young seventeen remaining, They moved to Palma, capital of the island, Staying in parishes, colleges, inns and private homes. Several of them had to go to work to pay the accommodation costs, maintenance, medicines, etc. Don José Castell told us that, on Christmas Eve 1936 They met again all Valencians in the monastery of Lluch. There were still many months to conclude the war and Valencia could return to their homes. They worked perfectly, in such adverse circumstances, feelings of solidarity, companionship and friendship.
But stay in Mallorca also meant a lot of suffering for all, as they arrived by letter and late, very worrying news from the towns where they were born, or where they studied or where they were Catholic churches of those who were responsible. With regard to the parent Santarrufina, the news that arrived by mail were alarming, of which tore the heart. In his own home town, Vlnalesa (I’ Horta) for example, They had shot the 27 September a priest family yours, Ramón Santarrufina Montalt, of 69 year old. And in Banyeres they had demolished the top of the bell tower and burned most of the images of the Church of Mercy. But the most shocking thing was finding out the murder of his coadjutor, Jose Toledo Pellicer, who he had been at the front of the parish when he moved to Mallorca to participate in the spiritual exercises. Toledo's father was taken to Llaurí (Township Bank Baixa where he born) Y, shortly after, was shot in the Valencia El Saler beach the 10 August 1936. He also would impact significantly Don José Santarrufina the announcements concerning the murder of two natural priests of Banyeres, Augustine and the brothers Mauricio Martinez Ribera, who they were shot along the road that connects our people with Biar, the day 25 August 1936.Y a long list of human casualties, from broken homes, hermitages and chapels desecrated.
And the news kept coming to him before he could do anything else to suffer, mourn and pray. What a horrible sense of powerlessness checking from a distance how violence could be reached levels, hatred and fanaticism in the same town where the Church spoke only of coexistence and tolerance, peace and freedom.
When he could return to Banyeres, It took a lot to the father Santarrufina reorganize and normalize the life of the parish of Santa Maria, where he started his priestly ministry as coadjutor twenty-two years before.
The Archbishop of Valencia entrusted, also, other church functions in Mislata. And in the year 1942, Santarrufina to the father was charged with another complicated mission: He was named pastor of the Good Shepherd. But it was a newly created parish, I did not even have church. The demarcation was assigned within the district Arrancapins, between the old Mercado de Abastos and the current Gran Via Ferdinand (Angel Guimerá streets, Sanchis Sivera, good Order, erudite Orellana, Juan Llorens, etc.).
The masses had to hold on the ground floor near the Market, in Street Angel Guimerá, where the wagons were kept from sellers. There took place, in 1942, the first baptism. Y, in the meantime, in those difficult post-war years, Santarrufina father managed to join the sufficient resources and efforts to build the temple of the Good Shepherd, across the street from the Erudito Orellana, very close to the college of Escolapias.
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Accompanying the clergy in the celebrations of the Hallow (1955)
Following in the footsteps of the father Santarrufina were in the church that he raised, to the front of a dedicated team of parishioners. We kindly attended the current pastor, Don Juan Ramón Piñal Moya and Don Enrique Mompó, a layman who voluntarily collaborates in economic management tasks and management, and personally he helped Santarrufina father for the last twenty years of his life. We showed in the office headed by a picture of this exemplary priest, the albums of the inauguration of the temple, by the Archbishop of Valencia, don Marcelino Olaechea, year 1947. And we say that Santarrufina father was always very present Banyeres, never losing touch with the people in which he began his priestly career.
I was glad to personally check the physical footprint left this famous priest in the parish that he raised. At the entrance to the temple, to the right of the front door, you can see a large marble plaque on which is inscribed the following legend: "The clergy, the Vestry and parishioners of the Good Shepherd, in testimony of gratitude and affection to his first parish priest, Don Jose Hurtado Santarrufina, meet on the occasion of the silver anniversary of the creation of this parish. Valencia, 10 February 1967 ». This event coincided with the fiftieth anniversary of the priestly life of Don José Santarrufina worth remembering again that began when he arrived as coadjutor in Banyeres 1917.
We conclude the visit to the parish of the Good Shepherd gazing to the left of the main altar, the marble slab covering the tomb where his father is buried Santarrufina. It states he was born in Vinalesa 1894 and he died in Valencia in 1987. Seventy years of priesthood, those between 1917, when it reaches Banyeres, Y 1987, when dies after 45 years delivered to the parish of the Good Shepherd. I get it, and I welcome that, that the Catholics of this parish Valencia have demonstrated their gratitude to such an endearing person as Don Jose Hurtado Santarrufina, whose exemplary life have tried to synthesize.
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Mass for the 50 canonical anniversary of the proclamation of St. George. Feast of the Relic 1977. From left to right: D. Antonio Belda Martínez, D. Miguel Sempere Calatayud, D. José Antonio Pastor Mora, D. Thomas Doménech Belda, D. Ricardo Diaz de Rabago Verdeguer, D. Hurtado José Santarrufina, D. Thomas Lucas Gilabert, D. Miguel Molina Calatayud, D. Maurice W. Hickin y D. Luis German German.
