Father Mateo Crawley-Boevey of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts made several visits to Spain to promote the apostolate of the Enthronement of the Sacred Heart in the Home and Night Adoration. On one of these visits, a young Spanish priest, Father Gonzalo, of the same Congregation was assigned by his superiors to assist Fr. Mateo with his work and travel plans. Fr. Mateo became his teacher and his friend as both traveled extensively throughout Spain promoting the apostolate and when Fr. Mateo left Spain to continue his apostolate in other European countries, Fr. Gonzalo continued the work making many apostolic journeys to the most diverse parts of Spain promoting the Enthronement of the Sacred Heart in the Home and recruiting more than 40,000 Night Adorers. The ministry helped promote a deeper family spirituality based on the love of God as expressed in the heart of Jesus and experienced in the Eucharist. Witnesses say that his tireless speaking was combined with a constant concern for the poor.
In the 1930’s there were persecutions of the Church in a number of countries around the world, Prussia, Poland, Germany, Mexico, China and elsewhere. This also occurred in regions of Spain where priests and religious were among those marked out for execution and included Fr. Gonzalo and several of members of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary. Fr. Gonzalo was captured in Madrid, driven to the outskirts of the city, shot and his body dumped in a ditch on the night of September 1, 1936.
Fr Gonzalo and four other religious of the Congregation, who were killed around the same time and in a similar fashion, were recognized as martyrs by a decree of Pope Benedict XVI in 2010 and were beatified October 27, 2013. The tomb of the martyrs is in the Church of the Sacred Hearts in Madrid.
As an early zealous apostle of the Enthronement of the Sacred Heart in the Home and of Night Adoration, who gave his life promoting the love of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, Fr. Gonzalo is an inspiration to all who promote the Apostolate of the Enthronement or have the Sacred Heart enthroned in their homes. With his four martyr companions his feast day is celebrated this month, October 27th. The Enthronement Apostolate is blessed to have a zealous intercessor in heaven. Blessed Gonzalo, pray for us.