Young people film in 10 short days about 7 religious martyrs

A group of young people who were participating in a media course organized by the Servants of the Home of the Mother have just released the short film The seventh crownabout the martyrdom of 7 Salesian nuns that they carried out for 10 days last summer.

“Some have described it as spiritual exercises,” Sister Teresa María Pérez, director of the short film, explains to ACI Prensa, describing that the course is “wrapped in a very spiritual atmosphere.”

“Learning and filming are an important part, but the most important thing is the apostolate and evangelization,” he emphasizes.

Sister Pérez shares that during the course “we go deeper into the characters, we entrust ourselves to the martyrs that we are going to represent, we ask them for help” since it is about “reflecting and transmitting the truth of the events and the wonderful treasure of those who “They have preceded us on the path of faith.”

A filming illuminated by a relic

Without a doubt, an essential factor to experience the filming in a transcendent way has been to be able to enjoy those days of a very special relic: the pectoral cross carried by the youngest of the martyrs, Sister María Cecilia, which is the Order’s own. of the visitation to which they belonged.

The fact of being able to have the cross-relic in the course – and therefore in the filming – was “an immense grace. She was the one that illuminated the entire script,” explains Sister Pérez, which revolves around the process of accepting the martyrdom of Sister María Cecilia.

The cross, furthermore, was identified in a providential way two years after the martyrdom of the nuns during the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939), which facilitated the location of the body.

Thanks to this relic “we were able to meditate every day and the performers in a special way, on the great dedication of each of the martyrs and to the point to which they were willing to suffer with and for Christ,” details the director of the short film.

A martyred community

The Order of the Visitation was founded at the beginning of the 17th century by Saint Francis de Sales and Saint Jeanne Francisca Frémiot de Chantal. Its members are called to be “the imitators of the two most beloved virtues of the Sacred Heart of the Incarnate Word: sweetness and humility,” defined its founder.

The first monastery of the Visitation in Spain was founded in 1749 in Madrid, under the protection of Kings Ferdinand VI and Barbara of Braganza, which is why they were called “royal salesa”.

They were expelled in 1870, and were able to return in 1883 to a new location in Madrid, as the original one became the headquarters of the Supreme Court. Located on Santa Engracia Street in Madrid, it is the National Center of the Honor Guard of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and new foundations have been born from its walls in Spain, Mexico and Colombia.

As a consequence of religious persecution and the outbreak of the Civil War on July 18, 1936, the seven sisters who made up the community took refuge, dressed in street clothes, in an apartment.

Four months later they were arrested by a group of nine armed militiamen, who took them to an open field where they were immediately shot. Six of the nuns died instantly, but the youngest of the group, Sister María Cecilia, ran and escaped.

Shortly after, she surrendered to the militiamen and was locked up in the Buenavista Czech, a detention and torture center run by anti-Christian guerrillas. Transferred to another prison, she was shot on the wall of the Vallecas cemetery on November 23, 1936.

After the end of the fratricidal war, the Order of the Visitation could not find the body of the seventh nun. In 1941, Araceli Sánchez Peláez accompanied a niece who wanted to enter the monastery.

When he saw the crosses on their chests, he immediately recognized that they were identical to one he had seen blown up by a bullet in a police station. This clue allowed us to locate “the seventh crown”, whose remains were transferred to the Valley of the Fallen.

The seven Salesians were beatified by Saint John Paul II on May 10, 1998.

The Servants of the Home of the Mother have already made six short films. Three through the Media Courses, all about martyrs: Pierre Morosini. The silence of purity; Cartas from Valor. Martyred nurses of Astorga y The Seventh Crown. Martyrs of the Visitation.

The other three are Ferdinand III the Saint, Knight of Jesus Christ, Servant of Mary; A teacher: Dialogue with Saint Isidore of Seville y For the only King: Saint Bernard of Clairvaux.