Blessed Salvador Mollar Ventura was born Jean-Baptiste Mollar Ventura on 27 March 1896 in Manises, near Valencia, Spain, into a large and poor family, the son of Bautista Mollar and María Ventura. Economic hardship forced him early into wage-earning work; he received only a village primary education and could not continue to secondary school. From childhood he took part regularly in the nocturnal adoration of his parish, joined the conferences of Saint Vincent de Paul, taught catechism to children, and prayed the Rosary with them.
At the age of twenty-five he entered the Order of Friars Minor at the convent of Gilet. He received the Franciscan habit in January 1921 (20 January), made simple profession the following year (22 January 1922), and pronounced solemn vows on 25 January 1925, taking the religious name Salvador (Sauveur / Salwator). As a simple brother he served as sacristan in the convents of Santo Spirito del Monte and of Benissa. He fulfilled this office with simplicity and devotion; contemporaries remembered him as always joyful and optimistic, marked by humility, gentleness, and a deep love for the Mother of God.
When the Spanish Civil War broke out and anti-Catholic persecution began, he was obliged to leave his convent. After a few days of shelter with benefactors of the community, he withdrew to his own family in Manises so as not to endanger those who had received him. On 13 October 1936 republican militias arrested him there. He was imprisoned in the former Carmelite convent of Manises, which had been turned into a jail, and subjected to torture. Though he had taken no part in politics, he was condemned solely for being a religious. On the night of 27–28 October 1936 (sources also note 26–27) he was shot at Picadero de Paterna, near Valencia, together with three fellow Franciscans. His mortal remains were later recovered from the municipal cemetery of Valencia and, on 3 March 1968, translated to the parish church of San Juan Bautista in Manises.
The informative process was held in Valencia between 1966 and 1969. Pope John Paul II beatified him at the Vatican on 11 March 2001 in the large group of José Aparicio Sanz and 232 companions, the first martyrs of the Spanish Civil War raised to the altars in the third millennium. His liturgical memorial is kept on 27 October, the day of his heavenly birthday.
May Blessed Salvador obtain for us the grace of joyful fidelity in ordinary duties and the courage to confess Christ without fear.
