Blessed Manuel Izquierdo Izquierdo and 123 Companions

The blessed martyrs of the diocese of Jaén were killed in different places and at different times during the Spanish Civil War, which from July 1936 took on the character of a cruel anti-Catholic persecution. The cause concerns the martyrdom of the diocesan priest Manuel Izquierdo Izquierdo and fifty-eight companions, and of Antonio Montañés Chiquero and sixty-four companions, grouped by the place of their death. Manuel Izquierdo Izquierdo, born at Castillo de Locubín on 9 December 1853 and ordained on 14 March 1891, was from 1921 parish priest of Nuestra Señora de Gracia at Villardompardo; his martyrdom was particularly cruel, and after torture and mutilation he was killed on 28 September 1936 at the age of eighty-three. With him at Torredonjimeno died Bernardo Cruz Pérez, parish priest of San Pedro, killed on 14 August 1936; Ramón de la Chica Cruz, parish priest of Santiago de Calatrava, killed on 14 October; and Antonio Ureña Liébana, assistant priest of Santa María, killed on 29 September.

Among those who died at Jaén were the priests Juan Martínez Sánchez, Francisco Morales Collado, Pedro Pardo Barrón, Antonio Peral Bustos and Juan María Torres Pérez, and the layman Juan José Martínez Blázquez, sacristan of Santiago de la Espada.