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Blessed Crescencia Valls Espí (1863–1936) was a Spanish embroiderer of Onteniente whose daily Mass, Communion, Rosary, and works of mercy made her a true social apostle among the sick and the poor. Denounced as a fervent Catholic, she was arrested with three of her sisters and shot in the neck at Canals on 26 September 1936 during the Spanish Civil War, crying out for Christ the King. Pope John Paul II beatified her on 11 March 2001 among the 232 Spanish martyrs.
Crescencia Valls Espí was born on 9 June 1863 in Onteniente, Spain, the daughter of Joaquín Valls and Francisca Espí, and was baptized the next day in the parish church of Santa Maria. She received her basic education at the school of the Daughters of Charity of Saint Vincent de Paul in her hometown. A devout Catholic from youth, she became an embroiderer and worked at home to help support her family.
She lived a life of steady prayer: daily Mass and Communion, the Rosary, and tender devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Blessed Virgin Mary. She belonged to several Catholic associations—the Women of Saint Vincent de Paul, the Apostleship of Prayer, the Daughters of Mary, Perpetual Help, Catholic Action, and the Third Order of Our Lady of Carmel. The Archdiocese of Valencia later called her a "social apostle." She visited the sick, begged alms from the wealthy for the needy, provided milk for nursing mothers and young children, paid burial expenses for poor families, and consoled the grieving, suffering with those who suffered.
Because of her open Catholic activity and her campaign in favor of the Pope, the mayor of Onteniente labeled her a "fervent Catholic" and denounced her to the governor of Valencia. She received death threats yet remained steadfast. With the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War she foresaw religious persecution and probable martyrdom.
On 26 September 1936, shortly before noon, militiamen broke into her house and arrested her together with her three sisters Concepción, Carmen, and Patrocinio. After about twelve hours of imprisonment they were taken to the port of Canals and murdered, shot in the neck. Tradition records that she died with the cry "Long live Christ the King" on her lips. Her body was first laid in a common grave in the Canals cemetery; later her remains were exhumed and interred in the church of the Assumption of Our Lady in Onteniente.
She was beatified by Pope John Paul II on 11 March 2001 as one of the 232 Spanish martyrs of the twentieth century.
May Blessed Crescencia obtain for us the courage to serve Christ in the poor and to confess Him even unto death.
Sources: Wikidata Wikipedia Causes of Saints Also listed Wikidata GCatholic
General Roman Calendar · Liturgical Calendar API
