My uncle: missionary, martyr and a step on the way to sainthood
Jesús Aníbal Gómez Gómez was born in 1914 in the small town of Tarso, Colombia, the youngest of 14 children.
As the son of one of the town’s founders, Jesús Aníbal had a life of privilege that included wealth, family and love.
Still, he felt something was missing – and felt it so strongly that, when he was still just 11 years old, he left his family to join a monastery in Bogota. After his studies there he travelled to Spain where, at the age of 22, he was seized by the rebels of the Spanish Civil War and massacred along with 13 other young Roman Catholics.
Jesús Aníbal Gómez Gómez at age 21
I know the story of Jesús Aníbal Gómez Gómez very well because I’ve been hearing it my whole life. He was my great uncle.
While Jesús Aníbal had gone to Spain to continue studying to be a priest and to attend different missionary conventions, he was soon forced along with other religious people to go into hiding in the dangerous town of Zafra. The civil war, under the leadership of Republican Manuel Azaña, underlined social, political, and religious issues. Azaña wanted to destroy the Roman Catholic influence by getting rid of the church and its activities.
Jesús Aníbal was the only Colombian among 13 Spanish missionaries who were transferred from Zafra to Madrid, Spain. On their way to Madrid, Azaña’s militants stopped them at a train station.
One said to Jesús Aníbal, “You have come so far to become a priest?”
“Yes, and with great honour,” responded Jesús Aníbal.
The militants gave all 14 missionaries the option to deny their religion. When they refused, all were ordered to stand in front of a wall, where they were killed.
Since I was a child, I’ve visited Jesús Aníbal’s room at my grandmother’s farm in Colombia. The bed is the exact same one he left when he was 11 years old.
But now, thousands of people from all over the world also come to visit my great-uncle’s room. They come to pray and heal, and to visit the chapel that now adjoins it, dedicated to a man known as a martyr.
On Oct. 13, Jesús Aníbal Gómez Gómez moved one step closer toward becoming a saint, at a blessing of 522 martyrs in Tarragona, Spain – the largest beatification ceremony in the history of the Roman Catholic Church.
I attended the beatification service along with members of my family, and, as Pope Francis said, via video link, “These disciples learned the same sense of loving to the extreme that drove Jesus to the cross,” tears ran down my face.
At the same time, the citizens of Tarso paraded around his hometown with posters, celebrating his beatification.
To them he is a hero, but to me, he is much more: a hero, yes, but also an inspiration, a blessing and my connection to my faith.
The 2013 beatification ceremony in Tarragona, Spain, was conducted by Cardinal Angelo Amato, the Prefect of the Congregation for Causes of saints. Thousands of people gathered to celebrate the lives and actions of 522 courageous people.
