Salvador David’s book on the martyrs of Algemesí reaches the big screen
Salvador David, a priest belonging to the parish’s Third Community, has gathered the unpublished letters of a mother and her four daughters, nuns martyred in 1936. Their story reaches cinemas on 13 November.
“Cartas desconocidas de una familia mártir” (in Spanish) · Salvador David · “El Cielo es para siempre” · 13 November, in cinemas
Salvador David is the author of “Cartas desconocidas de una familia mártir. María Teresa y sus hijas” (Unknown letters of a martyr family: María Teresa and her daughters, Naranja Editorial), with a foreword by Bishop Juan Antonio Martínez Camino, auxiliary bishop of Madrid. A native of Algemesí (Valencia), he gathers in the book unpublished letters from the martyrs of his home town and from Brother Serafín, a Capuchin and the youngest of the family, who was imprisoned but survived.
A mother and her four daughters
María Teresa Ferragud was born in Algemesí in 1853 and had nine children. Five of her daughters became cloistered nuns. One of them died before the religious persecution of 1936. The other four — María Jesús, Verónica and Felicidad, Capuchin Poor Clares in Agullent, and Josefa, a Discalced Augustinian in Benigànim — had to leave their convents that year and went back to their mother’s house. In October the militiamen came for them, and María Teresa, aged 83, refused to be parted from them.
They spent a few days imprisoned in the former convent of Fons Salutis. On 25 October, the feast of Christ the King, they were taken to the outskirts of Alzira. María Teresa asked to be killed last, so that she could stay with her daughters to the end.
“My daughters, do not be afraid: this is only a moment, and Heaven is for ever.”
Saint John Paul II beatified them on 11 March 2001. This 25 October marks 90 years since their martyrdom, and this year also marks 25 years since their beatification. Their bodies rest together in the parish of San Pío X in Algemesí.
From the letters to the big screen
María Teresa’s words give their title to “El Cielo es para siempre” (Heaven is for ever), Ricardo del Pozo’s documentary film from Siloé Films, inspired by the book. It opens in Spanish cinemas on 13 November. The book is available at Librería Códice (Calle de Moratín 7), very close to the parish, and has just been published in Italy as “Lettere di una famiglia martire”.
