Innocencio of Mary Immaculate

He was born on March 10, 1887 at O Valadouro, near the Cantabrian coast in the province of Lugo (Galicia) and joined the Passionist seminary at the age of 14 at Peñafiel, near Valladolid. He joined the Passionist Congregation at Deusto (Biscay) and then continued his philosophy and theology. At Mieres, not far from Turón, he was given the sub-diaconate in 1910, the diaconate in 1912 and was ordained priest in 1920. As a priest he preached missions and also taught in various schools. Whilst he was in Mieres he had been asked by the Brothers of the Christian Schools (De La Salle) to hear the confessions of the children on their school as they prepared for their First Communion. This was at the time of the Asturias revolt, when communists and anti-clericalists had risen up against the Second Spanish Republic.

On Friday October 5, 1934, a group of strikers forced their way into the Lasallian school in Turón, where Father Innocencio was exercising his priestly ministry. He was imprisoned alongside the eight Brothers in the so-called "House of the People" to await the judgment of the Republican committee. They were condemned to death and, in the early hours of October 9, 1934, were executed by a firing squad. Their bodies were buried in a common grave.

Innocencio is regarded by the Catholic church as one of the Martyrs of the Spanish Civil War. Although his death occurred some two years prior to the outbreak of the war, his death was part of the same violence and anti-clerical feeling of that period in Spain's history.

Innocencio and his eight fellow martyrs were declared venerable in 1989, beatified on April 19, 1990, then canonized on November 21, 1999 by Pope John Paul II.