Ramon Strauch i Vidal

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Ramon Strauch i Vidal
Bishop of Vic
Raimundo strauch-la hormiga de oro.png
Church Roman Catholic Church
Diocese Vic
See Vic
Installed 23 September 1816
Term ended 16 April 1823
Predecessor Francisco Veyán y Mola
Successor Pablo Jesús Corcuera y Caserta
Orders
Consecration 12 January 1817
by Pablo Sitjar Ruata
Personal details
Birth name Ramon Strauch i Vidal
Born (1760-10-07)7 October 1760
Tarragona, Spain
Died Script error: The function "death_date_and_age" does not exist.
Vic, Spain
Sainthood
Venerated in Roman Catholic Church
Title as Saint Servant of God

Ramon Strauch i Vidal OFM (7 October 1760 – 16 April 1823), was a Roman Catholic Spanish prelate who served as the Bishop of Vic.[1] He was killed in 1823 and his cause of canonization has commenced. The process started on 25 July 1933, and bestowed upon him the title of Servant of God.[2]

Biography

Ramon Strauch i Vidal was born in Tarragona, the son of Franz Strauch, a native of Glatz (now Kłodzko) in the archbishopric of Prague, lieutenant colonel in a Swiss regiment in the service of the King of Spain, and Raimunda Vidal. After completing his early studies in Zaragoza, in 1776 he took the religious habit with the Order of Observant Friars Minor on the island of Mallorca, where his father's regiment was garrisoned, and was appointed to teach philosophy in his convent. He was then given a chair of philosophy at Llullian University, which he held for twenty-five years. Father Strauch combined a remarkable talent for preaching with an extensive knowledge of history and mathematics. He was familiar with most of the living European languages, and the most distinguished Spanish scholars sought him out for discussions.

When French troops invaded the Iberian Peninsula in 1808, he was appointed chaplain to a Swiss regiment and courageously helped soldiers on the battlefield, even getting bullet holes in his clothes. However, he left the army and returned to Mallorca in early 1812. He continued his religious activities, at the same time devoting his pen to defending the Church and the legitimate monarchy, both in the works he translated into Spanish or composed and in the newspapers of which he was the main editor. In order to counter what he saw as impious and corrupting doctrines that were infiltrating the masses through Antillón's liberal paper Aurora patriótica Mallorquina,[3] he founded and directed for three years (1812–1815) the periodical Semanario crisliano-politico de Mallorca.[4] Some of his opponents used one of his sermons to accuse him of heresy before the Holy Office, and although the accusation was later recognised as slanderous, he was imprisoned by the Inquisition in Majorca from 28 July until mid-December of the same year. Convinced of his innocence, Strauch refused to escape and was eventually acquitted, but continued to face persecution.

The return of Ferdinand VII as King of Spain seemed to promise Strauch a more peaceful future. He was called to Court and appointed Bishop of Vic, in Catalonia. Bishop Strauch was told that he would be appointed to a more important post when a larger bishopric became available. Consecrated in Barcelona by the bishop of Urgell, he travelled to his diocese, often making all his visits on foot. He opposed the efforts of the innovators against ecclesiastical authority and prevented the introduction of forbidden books, which brought him new enemies. His refusal to swear an oath of loyalty to the Constitution of 1812 provided them with a pretext to attack him. Bishop Strauch firmly declared that he would not take the oath until the King had done so. Ferdinand then took an oath on the Constitution, and Strauch followed his example, but he felt that this oath did not authorise him to contravene divine law or the rules of the Church. He therefore refused to publish the decree of the Cortes of 23 October 1820, which made the Regulars subject to the Ordinaries, without the intervention of the Pope. He was also denounced for having prevented in his diocese (by a decision of 13 July 1819) the publication of a constitutional catechism, printed in Catalan and containing several texts contrary to the doctrine of the Church. Bishop Strauch was aware of the danger to which he was exposed. Relatives advised him to flee. The Bishop of Carcassonne Arnaud-Ferdinand de La Porte and Carrière, Vicar General of Perpignan, offered him asylum but he did not abandoned his parish.

He had just provided his episcopal city with the benefits of a mission preached by the Capuchins, and he continued to devote himself to the duties of his ministry, when he was arrested in his palace on 11 October 1822. Accused of having links with the Regency of Urgel, he was taken by order of General Milans del Bosch,[5] along with nineteen religious of his order, to the Citadel of Barcelona and isolated in the dungeons of this state prison. On the pretext of taking him to Tarragona, where he was expected to be finally acquitted after five months in captivity, he was taken aboard a tartane on 16 April 1823 with one of his subordinates, who never left his side.[lower-alpha 1] After docking at Molins de Rei, he ate with the two officers commanding his escort. They forced him to leave his religious garb, and they set off again to continue the journey ashore. On arriving in Vallirana, the prisoners were led from the city, dragged down a sunken path and shot dead.[lower-alpha 2] After robbing them, the soldiers returned to Barcelona. The bodies of the two victims remained unburied for three days. The locals only dared to bury them in the Vallirana cemetery after obtaining permission from the political leader of Catalonia. According to Vicente de la Fuente, Bishop Strauch was murdered by order of Antoine de Roten.[lower-alpha 3] On November 27, 1889, the two remains were taken in procession by Bishop José Morgades to Vic Cathedral, where they were given a solemn funeral.

Cause of beatification

He was hailed as a martyr and there were calls for the commencement of his cause of canonization. That commenced under Pope Pius XI on 25 July 1933, thereby proclaiming him to be a Servant of God.

See also

Works

  • Relación de las solemnes exequias, que en el Real Convento de N.S.P. S. Francisco de Palma capital del reino de Mallorca, consagró al señor Don Carlos III ..., en los dias 4 y 5 de marzo del año 1789 (1789)
  • Comentarios sobre la carta al redactor del Diario de Mallorca.,, de D. Plácido Ingénuo (1811)
  • Discurso sobre la influencia de la religión en la carrera de las armas. Respuesta interna al ensayo de un dictamen sobre la inmunidad, que escribió uno que se llama Español imparcial (1811)
  • Carta á la señora Aurora, ó reparillos sobre el periódico titulado la Aurora patriótica mallorquina (1812)
  • El fiscal fiscalizado. Contestación extrajudicial á la acusación fiscal á los reos de los alborotos de 30 de abril último, que por lo relativo á su persona, da el P. Fr. Raimundo Strauch, observante de la provincia de Mallorca (1813)
  • Carta al redactor del Diario de Mallorca sobre la discusión relativa á los bienes eclesiásticos que ocupa los veinte números de su periódico. Que se imprimió en Palma, por Miguel Domingo, 1811, y comentarios sobre la misma carta, en carta á D. Plácido Ingénuo, que le imprimieron en Mallorca en la imprenta de Melchor Guasp, año 1811 (1813)
  • Ensayo de un cotejo de la carta circular que ha pasado el M. I. S. Vicario general Gobernador de este obispado á los superiores de las órdenes Regulares. con los edictos del 6 de marzo y 25 de abril de este año (1813)
  • Artículo comunicado inserto en el procurador general de la Nación y del Rey, del sábado 26 de junio de 1813 (1813)
  • Conducta de los mm. rr. pp. provincial y definitario de menores observantes de San Francisco de Asis en esta ciudad, sobre el auto de prisión dado por el juez de primera instancia D. Ignacio Pablo Saudinio, contra la persona del M. R. P. Strauch, religioso de dicha orden (1813)
  • Finiquito de la Antorcha Primera y última repulsa de su director á las frecuentes envestidas de Seminaristas, Diaristas y Doctores Napoleones. La dedica con el debido acatamiento á la servil familia (1813)
  • Memorias para servir à la historia del Jacobinismo (1813–1814; 4 volumes; translated from the original French of Augustin Barruel; Strauch added several notes on this work, which according to Bruno Bret were one of the main reasons for the persecution he suffered; new edition in 1827)
  • Carta del P. D. Fulgencio Palet C. R., al R. P. Fr. Raymundo Strauch, franciscano, y notas de éste que sirven de contestación á aquélla (1814)
  • Historia del clero en tiempo de la revolución francesa (1814; translated from the original French of Augustin Barruel, with notes and documents)

Bernd Marizzi found in the archives of the episcopal palace in Vic the manuscript of a Gramática Española y Alemaña. Esto es: Reglas que enseñan el leer, pronunciar, entender, y hablar el Idioma Alemán. Escrita por Fr. Raymundo Stráuch, Religioso menor Observante. Año 1783.[8] According to Marizzi, it is based on C. Leopold's textbook L'art de parler allemand (1690), and has not yet been published.[9]

Notes

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Fray Miguel Quingles, a lay brother from the convent of Saint Francis in Palma.
  2. ↑ "On April 16, 1823, Fray Ramon Strauch, Bishop of Vich, an old man of 75, was led from the city at the bayonet-point with a lay attendant, after which both were shot por quererse fugar — i.e., on a pretext, familiar to all students of Spanish history, that they were attempting to run away. At Corunna, just over three months later on the night of July 24, 1823 — fifty-one persons, including monks and clergy, were bayoneted and thrown into the sea."[6]
  3. ↑ "Rotten organized in Barcelona against the good men, the system that today [1870] is followed against the bandits and kidnappers of Andalusia. He sent the prisoners to Tarragona or any other town, and in the middle of the road, the escort that was chosen for the purpose, killed them with bayonets, alleging that they had tried to escape. The prisoners left in a tartane that came to have a disastrous celebrity, being called Rotten's tartane, although it was not his but that of the fiercest communards of Barcelona. It was known that whoever entered it traveled for eternity. Thus the old Bishop of Vic was assassinated on April 16, 1823".[7]

Citations

  1. ↑ Chapeau, André; Charles N. Bransom, Jr. (1987). "Franciscan Bishops," Franciscan Studies, Vol. XLVII, pp. 287–372.
  2. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. ↑ Rodríguez Morín, Felipe (2014). "La Aurora Patriótica Mallorquina (1812-1813) y el clero regular. Dos maneras contrapuestas de entender el patriotismo, la religión y la política," El Argonauta español.
  4. ↑ Rodríguez Morín, Felipe (2013). "Las dos Españas en su papel, en los albores del siglo XIX: La Aurora Patriótica Mallorquina (1812-1813) y el Semanario Cristiano-Político de Mallorca (1812-1814)," Hispania Nova. Revista de Historia Contemporánea, No. 11.
  5. ↑ Ferrer, Melchor (1941). Historia del tradicionalismo español, Vol. 1. Sevilla: Ediciones Trajano, p. 112.
  6. ↑ Peers, E. Allison (1945). Spain, the Church and the Orders. London: Burns, Oates & Washbourne, pp. 65–66.
  7. ↑ Fuente, Vicente de la (1870). Historia de las sociedades secretas antiguas y modernas en España, y especialmente de la franc-masonería. Lugo: Imprenta de Soto Freire, p. 410.
  8. ↑ Marizzi, Bernd (2006). Frühe Dokumente von DaF in Spanien. Die erste deutsche Grammatik (1783) und ihr Autor, Raymundo Strauch y Vidal (1760-1823). Leipzig: ALEG.
  9. ↑ Marizzi, Bernd (2012). "Observaciones sobre la "Gramática Española y Alemana" de Reymundo Strauch". In: Michael Pfeiffer, Teresa Vinardell i Puig & Anna Montané Forasté, eds, Was mich wirklich interessiert: homenatge a Jordi Jané. Girona: Documenta Universitaria, pp. 95–108.

References

  • Bret, Bruno (1866). Colección de Sermones. Vich: Imprenta y Libreria de Luciano Anglada.
  • Comella, Jacinto (1926). Crónica de las solemnidades celebradas con motivo del centenario del Sacrificio del Ilustrísimo Fr. Raymundo Strauch y Vidal, Obispo de Vich. Barcelona: La hormiga de oro.
  • Comellas García-Llera, J. L. (1958). Los Realistas en el Trienio Constitucional (1820-1823). Pamplona: Studium Generales.
  • D'Algaida, Samuel (1930). "Fra Ramon Strauch, fra menor i Bisbe de Vich," Criterion, Vol. VI, pp. 305–11.
  • Elías de Molins, Antonio (1895). "Strauch y Vidal (D. Raimundo)." In: Diccionario biográfico y bibliográfico de ecritores y artistas catalanes del siglo XIX, Vol. 2. Barcelona, pp. 641–45.
  • Herrero, Javier (1971). Los orígenes del pensamiento reaccionario español. Madrid: Editorial Cuadernos para el Diálogo.
  • Jesús, Ramon de (1824). Oracion fúnebre que, (...) en la Iglesia Catedral de la ciudad de Vich, (...) con motivo de la traslacion, (...) del cadaver del Ilmo. Sr. D. Fr. Raymundo Strauch y Vidal, Obispo de Vich. Perpiñan: J. Alzine.
  • Pillet, Claude-Marie (1826). "Strauch, François-Raimond." In: Biographie universelle ancienne et moderne, Vol. 44. Paris: L. G. Michaud, pp. 41–44.
  • Saura Lahoz, Pascual (1923). "Ilmo. Fr. Raymundo Strauch y Vidal, Obispo de Vich, 1823-1923," Archivo ibero-americano, Año X, No. 58, pp. 321–35.
  • Teetaert, Amédée (1941). "Strauch y Vidal, Raymond." In: Alfred Vacant, Eugène Mangenot & Émile Amann, eds., Dictionnaire de théologie catholique, Vol. 14. Paris: Letouzey, pp. 2629–30.

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Preceded by Bishop of Vic
1816–1823		 Succeeded by
Pablo Jesús Corcuera y Caserta
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