Spanish Martyr of Maltese ancestral roots
Vicente, José María, Ramón, the youngest of three siblings, was born in Valencia, Spain, to Vicente Sicluna Caruana, born in Muro de Alcoy (Alicante) in 1820, and María del Rosario Hernández Balader, born in Valencia in 1820. His paternal grandfather, Lorenzo Félix Raymundo Scicluna Fenech was born in Għaxaq, Malta, in 1775, and had emigrated to Spain, where he married Margarita Caruana Capello, born in San Juan (Alicante).
His father was a Primary School teacher in a private school in Valencia. Perhaps, during any of Vicente’s father travels as he followed his career, he would have taught at L’Ollería, where it is known that Vicente spent the early years of his childhood.
Vicente went to High School at the Real Colegio de San Pablo in Valencia, where he finished his Secondary School studies in the Arts in 1875 at the age of 16. He started his studies to train as a Teacher in 1876 at the Escuela Normal de Maestros of Valencia, graduating from the College two years afterwards.
Later, displaying a clear vocation for the priesthood, Vicente Scicluna Hernández studied at the Seminario Conciliar in Valencia. He was ordained priest in 1884 and also graduated as Master in Sacred Theology.
He exercised his priestly ministry firstly as an Auxiliary in Las Ventas de La Puebla (La Pobla de Vallbona) between 1884 and 1893. It is known that he was subsequently (1893) an Auxiliary in the Parish of The Assumption of Our Lady (La Asunción de Nuestra Señora) in Albaida until 1894, when he was then assigned to be Substitute parish priest till 1900 in the Parish of Our Lady of the Angels (Nuestra Señora de los Ángeles) in Serra, where his sister María del Rosario died in 1895.
Later, between 1901 and 1902, he was the parish priest at the Parish of Our Lady of the Angels (Nuestra Señora de los Ángeles) in Cortes de Arenoso (Castellón). Finally, he was sent to act as substitute parish priest at the Parish of The Assumption of Our Lady (La Asunción de Nuestra Señora) in Navarrés, an office that he held from June 1902 until he became a fully-fledged parish priest of the same parish on 23 October 1903, in an office which he occupied uninterruptedly till his death in the early hours of 22 September 1936.
One must underline the fact that, during the lengthy pastoral period Don Vicente spent in Navarrés, where he exercised his priestly ministry for thirty four years, he showed himself as being truly a man of God. He is recalled with admiration for his discretion, his zeal and those other priestly virtues that he was endowed with. He led a deeply spiritual life, spending long hours in front of the Holy Sacrament.
He was a respected spiritual director, considerate and obliging to all his faithful’s needs. He had an amiable character and was given to charity, willingly helping whoever approached his home, sharing with them whatever he could give them at the time. He untiringly visited those in his parish who fell sick.
Many priests sought Don Vicente for his wise advice. The Diocesan Curia too consulted with him on certain matters. He was an articulate preacher, and his homilies were a wealth of theological and spiritual reflection. Because of this, the parish faithful fondly nicknamed him ‘The Golden Beak’. Significantly one may mention his preachings on ‘The Seven Sorrows’ and the ‘Last Seven Words’ on Good Friday, etc.
He nurtured a strong devotion for the image of the Holy Christ of Good Health (Santísimo Cristo de La Salud), as is clearly reflected in the hymns to Christ that he himself composed.
His profound trajectory of priestly spirituality and Christian faith outwardly manifested itself in the various sermons, hymns, canticles, meditations and abundant spiritual reflections, all of them written by his hand, and the originals of which have been preserved.
Among the other humane qualities and characteristics of his personality, one may highlight his drawing skills, his having graduated in the Arts. He painted several portraits of some of his villagers, and he also designed the banner of the Brotherhood of the Children of Mary (Las Hijas de María), whose image of the Most Pure Conception (Purísima Concepción) was entrusted to the looms in Ponsoda.
Another interesting aspect of his sacerdotal life was his interest in maintaining the parish church and the wayside chapel of the Hermitage of Christ in good condition.
He worked hard in the social field among his faithful. In 1929, he was appointed counsellor in the renowned Cooperative bearing the name ‘Agricultural Union of the Holy Christ of Good Health’ (Sindacato Agrículo del Santísimo Cristo de La Salud) that had been established on 29 June of that same year.
Before his martyrdom, when the local situation had started to worsen, he had already decided to remain in Navarrés because of his advanced age and his fragile condition, instead of fleeing from the village. Several families, risking their lives, had decided to hide him, between 15 August and 22 September, in as many as five different houses. Curiously enough, the last of these hiding-places was an old chapel belonging to the Evangelical Church – which had been present in Navarrés for a long time – that lay unoccupied at that moment. This was possible thanks to a few members of that Church’s clergy who felt a strong bond of friendship and were religiously attuned with Don Vicente.
He was so grateful at their charitable gesture of hospitality that he gave them his own Bible as a present and, in bidding them farewell, he told them that they would soon be reunited together again in heaven: after all, they all believed in trusting their fate in the hands of Jesus Christ. Certainly, much before his actual martyrdom, Don Vicente was firmly convinced that he would die as a martyr for Christ, as he would admit to several persons during the period when he was being hid in various houses of the village.
In the early hours of 22 September, whilst Don Vicente was hiding in the old chapel of the Evangelical Church, a number of militiamen knocked on the door, whilst others jumped inside through the balcony. At that moment, he knew that the worst awaited him. Having kept at his hiding place a repository for the Holy Host, which he used to covertly administer Holy Communion to the sick every day, he decided to immediately swallow all the Host particles in his possession to avoid possible sagrilegious acts being committed with them throughout his detention.
As Don Vicente Scicluna Hernández was going down the stairs, after having been arrested, he exclaimed with deep faith to the Holy Christ of Good Health: ‘Holy Christ of Good Health, help me during my final moments and at the hour of my death.’
Already at death’s door, he was led to a place within the precincts of the Town Council of Bolbaite, where one shot was fired to the area of the heart, causing his death. The exact location of his martyrdom is known.
At dawn of the following day, they carried his naked corpse mounted on a donkey around the streets of Bolbaite, to the accompaniment of many resounding mockeries, until he was finally taken to the cemetery of the town where he was buried in a pit in the ground.
The saintly life that Don Vicente led, conducting his priestly mission with an exemplary disposition, was finally crowned with his martyrdom.
On 11 March 2000 Don Vicente Scicluna Hernández was beatified by St John Paul II, Pope, together with 232 companions of the Spanish Civil War. Their memorial falls on 22 September.
This biography is part of the collection created by Michael Schiavone over a 30-year period. Read more about Schiavone and his initiative here.