Saint Julian of Cuenca and his martyred body

In a few months a new work will be released that I wanted to title INSPIRED BY SATAN. The martyrdom of things, the martyrdom of saints and Eucharistic desecrations in the days of religious persecution in Spain (1930-1939) , and which -God willing- will publish Ediciones San Román. On the occasion of the festival of San Julián de Cuenca, -which we celebrate today- I present you these pages about him.

They serve as a portal for the interview with Montserrat Álvarez, vice-postulator for the martyrdom cause of the servant of God Joaquín Ayala Pastor and 86 fellow martyrs from the diocese of Cuenca, which we will publish in a few days. The next first Friday of the month, February 4, the diocesan phase closes in Cuenca. Glory to blessed God.

SAINT JULIAN OF CUENCA (1128-1208)

We read on the website of the diocese of Cuenca that «Saint Julián was the second bishop of the diocese of Cuenca, at whose head he spent ten years, succeeding Don Juan Yáñez. The preserved writings refer to him as a holy man, chosen by God from the womb (like the prophets). In Reading V of the Office of Matins we read:

He was a true father to the poor, that he helped, with his money and his work, the needs of the needy, widows and orphans. He used the income from his church both to help the poor and to establish and order the temples; contenting himself, to live with little sustenance that he procured with his own hands. He was assiduous in prayer, with whose strength, burning with paternal charity, he obtained many great things from God in favor of his people.

San Julián de Cuenca originally responded to the name of Julián Ben Tauro. His surname denotes his Mozarabic ancestry. Different writings state that he was born in Burgos, the son of honest and pious parents. His birth was accompanied by certain signs that hinted at his sanctity.

He did his higher studies at the University of Palencia, where he was then a professor. Around 1162, coinciding with the death of his mother, he gave himself directly to dealing with God from a retreat where he would find enough tranquility to give himself completely to an exemplary life of faith.

Many biographers expose Julián's apostolic excursions throughout Spain. Both the Christian kingdoms of the North and the Muslim lands witnessed his zeal for the salvation of all, and his efforts to revive or give birth to the faith of Christ in all the places he went as a traveling preacher. Due to his work as a missionary, his fame grew to the point of reaching the knowledge of the Archbishop of Toledo, who offered Saint Julián to fill the vacant Archdeacon of Calatrava. Of iron principles, the archbishop had to overcome the resistance of San Julián so that he accepted the appointment. San Julián took over the diocese of Cuenca in 1198.

In 1201 he gave a statute to the Cuenca chapter, which was later accompanied by the donation of goods so that the canons could better attend to their needs.

The saint exercised, in his moments of solitude, in manual work, mainly in the braiding of wicker and the manufacture of baskets, a product whose sale increased the income of the bishopric, which was used mainly in the maintenance of the poor. The death or transit of San Julián took place on January 20, 1208 -according to tradition, at the age of 80, but his feast, celebrated for centuries in Cuenca and in the other places where he is held a special cult , was fixed on the 28th of the same month. In memory of Saint Julián and as a tribute to his charity, the Cabildo instituted, at the beginning of the 15th century, the so-called Arca de San Julián or de la Almosna, which became a charitable institution to attend to the most urgent needs of the citizens. disinherited

BURNED AND RECOVERED

The San Julián Altar, also called Transparent, was designed by Ventura Rodríguez in the mid-eighteenth century. The altar is made of marble, jasper and bronze, with high relief medallions and allegorical statues, the work of Francisco Vergara, from the second half of the 18th century, Baroque. In 1760 the remains of San Julián were transferred to the new altar.

Sebastian Cirac recalls in his Martyrology [1] that «on July 28 [1936] the Episcopal Palace was looted, in the presence of the Bishop [2]. The following two days, on the 29th and 30th, the robbery in the Palace continued and the desecration and looting of the Cathedral was completed. After stealing the treasure, the money and the most precious jewels of the cult, they attacked the relics of San Julián, the second Bishop of Cuenca (+1208).

His bones were burned in a bonfire, and they took the gold pectoral with precious stones that was locked in the urn, as well as the silver of the same, artistically elaborated in 1695 from the tableware of the same metal that Bishop Don Diego gave Antonio de San Martin.

[In the newspaper library we have been able to find a photo of the urn that disappeared in 1936. It is about the procession that runs through the streets of Cuenca on the occasion of the seventh centenary of the glorious transit of San Julián. The snapshot is published by La Hormiga de Oro, on September 19, 1908. The procession was authorized for September 4, at five in the afternoon, with the same route as that of Corpus Christi].

Although not in the same place (some affirm that, in the same naves of the Cathedral, in another place we have read that in the courtyard of the Episcopal Palace), whatever it may be, what is not in doubt is that the body of Saint Julián was burned.

Once the war was over, it was possible to extract from all the ash that had remained at the scene of the events, a few human bone remains, barely thirty-seven fragments, which were collected by the Palace doorman, Manuel Torrero Lavisiera. The Bishop, Monsignor Inocencio Rodríguez Díez, [who was Bishop of Cuenca from 1943-1973] commissioned the expert report from the director of the School of Legal Medicine of Madrid, Don Antonio Piga, and the head professor of the Thanatology Section of Madrid, Don Manuel P. de Petinto.

In his opinion, issued on August 22, 1944, they categorically stated that the thirty-seven aforementioned bone fragments collected are compared and verified with the same ones that were taken from the SIC Basilica of Cuenca. Rejecting as not authentic other fragments, also submitted with the thirty-seven mentioned above, for offering very different characteristics.

These relics of the patron saint of Cuenca were collected together with the remains of ashes, tissue residues and various ancient coins in the place where he was burned during the Spanish civil war. The decree of authenticity of the remains was signed by the Bishop on October 19, 1945. So currently inside the urn are the bones that were collected and sent to the School of Legal Medicine of the University of Madrid in 1944.

On the other hand, following the version that he was burned with gasoline in the garden of the Episcopal Palace, Monsignor Inocencio Rodríguez Díez had a stone statue erected at the site of his cremation, representing the Almoner Bishop, in an attitude of blessing his profaners. .

Finally, a popular subscription was also carried out in order to order a new silver chest, which was made by the Valencian goldsmith José Bonacho David, paid for by means of a popular subscription in 1946, and which is the one that is currently in the Altar. of the Transparent of the Cathedral of Cuenca.

[1] SEBASTIÁN CIRAC ESTOPAÑÁN, Martyrology of Cuenca (Barcelona, ​​1947), p. 163 and following.

[2] This is Blessed Cruz Laplana y Laguna (1875-1936). On November 30, 1921, the Holy See named him bishop of the diocese of Cuenca. According to some accusations, after the fall of the monarchy on April 14, 1931, he would have had an active participation in politics, openly declaring himself not a supporter of the new republican regime. However, Antonio Torrero González, socialist mayor of Cuenca in 1936, spoke out against these accusations: «D. Cruz Laplana, as such D. Cruz Laplana, there was nothing against him, as against the other gentleman (Fernando Español); messing with them was because he was a bishop, because he was a priest. I, of course, can emphasize that Mr. Bishop, in politics, fled from all of it. The impression that he had in Cuenca was that he was a good person, and there was no hatred for him at all». According to the first mayor, who was present at the looting of the episcopal palace, «absolutely nothing was found in the (episcopal) Palace, neither letters, nor newspapers, nor weapons, nothing that could be compromising for the Bishop. ». "My opinion on the death of the two (blessed Cruz Laplana and Fernando Español) is that they died as saints." He was beatified on October 28, 2007.