Julian Carrasquer Fos was the superior of a house of Hospitallers of Saint John of God in Calafell, Spain. On July 25, 1936 as the Spanish Civil War began, the Hospitallers’ institute was seized by Communist militiamen. The soldeirs stripped the brothers of their religious habits and removed all religious images from the building. In this hostile environment, the brothers persevered in their daily labors and increased their prayers. After being provided with the necessary papers to leave for France, nineteen of the religious set out from Calafell on July 30. That same day, they were ambushed by militiamen. All but four of the religious were taken out to be shot by firing squad. Those martyred included the superior Brother Julian and six other professed brothers, one of whom was a priest (Braulio Maria Correz Diaz de Cerio), as well as eight novices. Before dying from nine gunshots, the twenty-seven-year-old novice Domingo Pitarch Gurrea entrusted to the executioners his crucifix and his rosary beads, soaked in his own blood, asking that they be given to his mother.