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 News of the Institute and Lasallian Family
Feastday of the Martyrs of Turón, October 9, 1999.
 "On the first Friday of October 1934, the authorities broke into the Brothers' house. The Brothers were arrested, detained over the weekend without trial, and then in the middle of the night were marched out to the cemetery where they were shot. Cirilo, the Director, was 46 years old, Marciano was 39, Julián was 32 and all the rest were in their twenties. Aniceto, the youngest, was 22."
Adapted from the biography of the Martyrs of Turón, Asturias.
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November Canonization.
On Sunday, November 21, 1999, in the Basilica of St Peter's, Pope John Paul II will canonize Cirilo Bertran and
Companions, Martyrs, nine of whom are Brothers of the Christian Schools (De La Salle) and the tenth a Passionist
priest. All were martyred in Spain. Eight Brothers of the Christian Schools and the Passionist
priest were executed by a firing squad on October 9, 1934, at Turón, during the Revolution in the Asturias. The other Brother, Jaime Hilario, suffered
the same fate at Tarragona, on January 18, 1937, during the Civil War.
The eight Brothers of Turón, a small town in a coal-mining valley in the Asturias, formed the Lasallian
community which ran the "Nuestra Señora de Covadonga" school, with its 400 or so pupils, almost
all sons of local miners. The Passionist priest visited the school regularly to say Mass and hear confessions.
 As part of the commemoration of this event, the Generalate in Rome has renovated the side chapel on the west side of the Generalate's main chapel. This chapel commemorates the lives of the nearly 200 Brothers who have been martyred since our order was founded by Saint John Baptist de La Salle in 1680.
 On the altar of the Martyrs' Chapel, below the statue of Blessed Solomon (the first Brother martyred), is the reliquary of the Martyrs. On either side of the reliquary, two bronze angels hold the Seal of the Institute. In it are relics of the Brothers of Turon and Almeria.
 Two large mosaics are on either side of the Martyrs' Chapel. The mosaics were crafted by Romano Cosci in his workshop in Pietrasanta, near Carrara, Italy.
 Once completed, they were transported to the Generalate where they were mounted on the wooden foundations that were prepared in the Martyrs' Chapel. The mosaics were made in sections which were glued to the foundations. The mounting of the mosaics took about a week and resembled the piecing together of a huge jig-saw puzzle.
 The various scenes in the two mosaics commemorate the martyrdom of Brothers in Europe, Asia and Central America. They portray graphically the ordeals that many of our Brothers went through, dying for their faith.
 Above the two large mosaics are stained glass windows. On the left side are scenes depicting the various forms of martyrdom experienced by the Brothers. On the right side are pictures of individual Brothers.  The example to the right is of Brother Jaime Hilario, one of the Brothers who will be canonized on Sunday, November 21, 1999 by Pope John Paul II. |
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