Padre Jose Maria Cirera MSC and the Blessed Matyrs of El Quiche
Date of birth: April 27, 1945.
Place of birth: Barcelona, Spain.
Priestly ordination: June 9, 1972.
Year of his arrival in Guatemala: 1975.
Date of his death: June 4, 1980.
Place: Near Xe Ixoq Vitz Village, Chajul Township.
José María had entered the Novitiate of the Missionary Fathers of the Sacred Heart, in Canet de Mar, Barcelona, in 1965. He made his religious profession on September 8, 1966. He was ordained a priest in Valladolid, Spain on 9 June 1972; three years later he came as a volunteer missionary to work pastorally in the Diocese of Quiché, Guatemala.
His five missionaries in Quiché developed them pastorally in three parishes: from November 1975 to February 1978 in Santa Cruz del Quiché, departmental header; from February to August 1978 in Zacualpa, and September 1978 in Zacualpa 1978 until his death, in San Gaspar Chajul Parish.
On June 4, 1980, he was returning from a pastoral tour of the villages, accompanied by his sacristan Domingo from the Batz neighbourhood, on the way they were intercepted by an army battalion and shot dead.
