Juan María de la Cruz, S.C.I. (born Mariano García Méndez, San Esteban de los Patos,

Province of Ávila Ávila () is a province of central-western Spain, in the southern part of the autonomous community of Castile and León. It is bordered on the south by the provinces of Toledo and Cáceres, on the west by Salamanca, on the north by Valladolid, an ...

, 25 September 1891 – Silla, Valencia, 23 August 1936) was a Spanish Roman Catholic priest. The

Roman Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

considers him a

martyr A martyr (, ''mártys'', "witness", or , ''marturia'', stem , ''martyr-'') is someone who suffers persecution and death for advocating, renouncing, or refusing to renounce or advocate, a religious belief or other cause as demanded by an externa ...

. He was beatified by

Pope John Paul II Pope John Paul II ( la, Ioannes Paulus II; it, Giovanni Paolo II; pl, Jan Paweł II; born Karol Józef Wojtyła ; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 1978 until his ...

in 2001, together with his fellow martyrs killed in the

Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War ( es, Guerra Civil Española)) or The Revolution ( es, La Revolución, link=no) among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War ( es, Cuarta Guerra Carlista, link=no) among Carlists, and The Rebellion ( es, La Rebelión, link ...

References

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Celebration at St Peter's Square
1891 births 1936 deaths People from the Province of Ávila 20th-century Spanish Roman Catholic priests Spanish beatified people Martyred Roman Catholic priests Martyrs of the Spanish Civil War People executed by Spain by firing squad Beatifications by Pope John Paul II {{RC-clergy-stub