PRAT Y PRAT, MERCEDES, BL.

Known in religion as María Mercedes; martyr of the Society of St. Teresa of Jesus; b. Mar. 6, 1880, Barcelona, Spain; d. July 24, 1936, Barcelona.

Mercedes' Christian parents, Juan and Teresa, died while she was still a child. She combined her special talents as a painter, needleworker, and catechist to evangelize other girls. In 1904, she entered the novitiate of the Society of Saint Teresa of Jesus at Tortosa, where she pronounced her initial vows (1907) and served as a dedicated teacher. From 1920, she was assigned to the motherhouse at Barcelona, from which the community was forced to flee (July 19, 1936) at the beginning of the Spanish Civil War. Stopped by militiamen, Mercedes was arrested on July 23 upon identifying herself as a religious. She was shot at dawn on July 24 on the road to Rabasada. Although mortally wounded she survived for some hours in extreme pain. Her cries attracted the attention of the passing militiamen, who shot her again.

At her beatification (April 29, 1990) Pope John Paul II said: "Her great love for God and neighbor brought her to engage in the apostolic work of catechesis…. Herlove for her neighbor showed itself above all in her act of pardoning those who shot her."

Feast: July 24 (Carmelites).

Bibliography: v. cÁrcel ortÍ, Martires españoles del siglo XX (Madrid 1995). j. pÉrez de urbel, Catholic Martyrs of the Spanish Civil War, tr. m. f. ingrams (Kansas City, Mo. 1993). Acta Apostolicae Sedis (1990): 578.

[k. i. rabenstein]