Blessed Salvio Huix
The sixth of November marks the liturgical feast of the Spanish Oratorian martyr, Bishop Salvio Huix Miralpeix. Born in 1877, he was ordained priest in 1903 and worked as country curate before entering the Oratory at Vic in 1907 at the age of thirty. He was elected Provost and subsequently, in 1928, he was appointed apostolic administrator of Ibiza and ordained bishop. In 1935 he was appointed to the see of Lleida. The following year, in the tumult of the Spanish Civil War, his palace was attacked by the socialists and he found refuge in the house of his loyal servants. To save those who sheltered him he handed himself over to the Republicans and was imprisoned. On 5 August 1936 he and twenty other prisoners were taken to the municipal cemetery and forced to dig their own graves. Bishop Huix was offered his freedom if only he would renounce his faith; rather he requested to be the last to die so he could assist his fellow victims as they went to their deaths. One of the socialists grew furious and shot him in his right hand so that he could no longer bless; he continued to do so with his left hand instead. He was killed by a shot to the head.
As a young priest at the Vic Oratory, Blessed Salvio had published, under a pseudonym, a book of Eucharistic devotions and meditations. In one of these he expressed rather prophetically his desire to give his life for Christ:
May all my aspirations and desires be none other than to give my life for your glory and love O Lord; you gave your life for my salvation and out of love for me. You alone are perfectly enough for me. To you I give all I have; if I had more, I would gladly give it all to you. Make me faithful until death. May I never retract this my firm desire. You can do everything Lord; give me the grace to overcome everything, for you are always faithful. You can do everything: make me live and die with you and for you, since only you are my life, my holiness, my love, my contentment and eternal happiness. I ask you, Lord, for the grace to always want to suffer any tribulation, labour, illness, and even death; all for you O Lord. I ask you for the virtue that is necessary for me to fight against difficulties and to shed my blood, if necessary, to uphold and defend the honour of your Sacred Gospel.
You bless and confirm, I know O Lord, this desire of mine, and with your divine grace you will make this promise of mine effective and persevering. Now, most loving Father, I also place myself on the altar of sacrifice and I beg you to deign to receive the total offering that I make of myself, of my soul with all its powers and of my body with all its senses; everything is a gift and a gift that I have received from your infinite generosity; I return it to you as a token of gratitude and homage, protesting here, in the presence of the angels that surround this altar, that I do not want to use your gifts except if it is in accordance with your most holy will."
(translated from ‘Apuntes biográficos de Mons. Salvio Huix Miralpeix: Obispo mártir de Lleida’, p. 126)