Mercè Prat i Prat
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Barcelona
Barcelona
Mercè Prat i Prat STJ | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Virgin, martyr | |
| Born | 6 March 1880 Barcelona |
| Died | 24 July 1936 (aged 56) Barcelona |
| Venerated in | Roman Catholic Church |
| Beatified | 29 April 1990, Saint Peter's Square by Pope John Paul II |
| Feast | 24 July |
Mercè Prat i Prat, STJ (6 March 1880 - 24 July 1936) was a Spanish Catholic nun who was a member of the Societatis Sanctae Teresiae a Iesu.[1] She assumed the religious name of Maria Mercè of the Sacred Heart. She was killed during the Spanish Civil War on the charge of being a religious sister.[2][3] Pope John Paul II beatified her on 29 April 1990 in Saint Peter's Square.[4]
Mercè Prat i Prat was born on 6 March 1880 in Barcelona as the eldest of four children to Juan Prat i Serra and Teresa Prat i Bordoy.[1][3] She was baptized on 7 March and received her First Communion on 30 June 1890.[4] She attended Mass on a frequent basis as a child and excelled in painting as well as needlework.[2]
Prat had to fend for herself and her siblings after the death of her father in 1895 and the death of her mother not long after in 1896.[3][5]
Prat travelled to Tortosa in 1904 and entered the Teresian Sisters while commencing her novitiate on 27 August.[3] Prat was vested in the habit on 1 March 1905 and made her profession on 10 March 1907.[3] She worked in the field of education in Barcelona until 1909 when she was invited to Madrid where she made her final vows on 10 March 1910; she was in Tortosa in 1915 and was later assigned to work at the motherhouse of the congregation in 1920 in Barcelona.[2][5] On 19 July 1936 the congregation was forced to abandon both their house and school due to suppression from the anti-Catholic government forces.[2][4]
She was later arrested within the week alongside a companion and was sentenced to death on the charge of being a nun. She was both interrogated and threatened with being shot on 23 July. That evening he and her companion were shot in the evening before a firing squad on the road to Rabasda; Prat repeated between cries of pain: "Jesus, Joseph, Mary" while she also recited the Apostles' Creed. Her last words were part of the Our Father: "Forgive us ... as we forgive ..." - militiamen heard her cries of pain and shot her dead at dawn at 4:00 a.m. on 24 July.[1][2] She was buried in Barcelona.[5]
Gioacchina Miguel, another sister arrested and shot alongside Prat, lived through the ordeal and became a main witness for the beatification process of Prat.[3]
