In 2007, Pope Benedict XVI beatified 498 Catholics who perished as martyrs during the “Red Terror” of the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939). Previously, John Paul II had beatified 233 martyrs from the war, largely from Valencia. The beatification process continues for hundreds such martyrs. Priests and religious were particularly targeted, but this number also includes laypeople who sheltered priests, wore outward symbols of the Faith, or otherwise witnessed to the Faith in heroic ways.
