Bl. Juan Bautista Ferreres Boluda

Father Juan Bautista Ferreres Boluda was a renowned Jesuit moral theologian from L'Olleria, Spain. Having been arrested by the anti-Catholic Popular Front, he was one of twelve priests detained in the San Miguel prison of Valencia as the Spanish Civil War continued in the late autumn of 1936. The priests were kept in a room so crowded and cramped that they could scarcely sleep on the prison floor. Father Ferreres' fellow Jesuit in the prison, (Blessed) Alfredo Simon Colomina, heard the confessions of the others there and led them in the recitation of the rosary until his execution on November 29, 1936. Father Ferreres, who was seventy-five years old, became ill from the harsh conditions and brutal treatment to which he had been subjected in the prison. On December 8, the solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, another priest gave Father Ferreres Viaticum. On Christmas Day he again requested Holy Communion. He died in the prison four days later on December 29.