Blessed Vicente Vilar David

Blessed Vicente Vilar David was a Spanish engineer and industrialist from Manises, near Valencia, a husband and catechist who was guided in his work by the social teaching of the Church. He died for the faith in 1937, during the religious persecution in Spain. The Church commemorates him on February 14.

He was born on June 28, 1889, in Manises, the youngest of the eight children of Justo Vilar and Carmen David, owners of a ceramics factory. He went to school in Manises and in Valencia, and completed his studies in Barcelona in 1914 with a degree as an industrial engineer, in keeping with the wish of his late father.

He returned to Manises and, with three of his brothers, ran the factory inherited from their father. As technical director he improved the working methods and the formulas for the glazes. He helped the workers in their personal and family needs and also saw to it that they had support in sickness and old age. When two of his brothers objected to this way of treating the employees, he chose to leave the factory rather than give up his principles, and for a time he lived in want. Later, together with partners, he opened a plant of his own.

On November 30, 1922, he married Isabel Rodes Reig, who shared his commitment to the life of the parish. From 1923 to 1930 he was deputy mayor of Manises. The parish priest called him his right hand. Vicente taught catechism to children, belonged to the Confraternity of the Blessed Sacrament, and supported the seminary. When religious instruction was banned in Spanish schools in 1931, he helped to set up in Manises the Social Action Patronage (Patronato de Acción Social), which took charge of the Christian education of the young.

When violent persecution of the Church broke out in 1936, he did not change his conduct. His factory was taken from him and he was reduced to an ordinary worker, and the parish church was burned. He took into his home the parish priest and religious communities driven from their houses. Not even the killing of the parish priest frightened him. He kept telling his wife that they had to be ready for martyrdom.

On the evening of February 14, 1937, the first Sunday of Lent, he was arrested together with his wife and brought before the revolutionary committee. He was accused of having helped the Church. When it was proposed that he deny the charges and save his life, he answered that his greatest glory was to be what he was and that he would not deny the truth. His wife was released, and he was shot on the way to prison. Lying on the ground, he called on God and told his killers that he not only forgave them but wished them well. A moment later he was killed.

His death shook all of Manises. Those who mourned him most were the workers, who saw in him a father. John Paul II beatified Vicente on October 1, 1995, in Saint Peter’s Square, among 110 new blesseds. Among the 45 martyrs from Spain raised to the altars that day, he was the only lay person. The pope said then that Vicente had crowned with martyrdom a life given to God, to his neighbor, and to justice in the world of work.