Bls. Pedro Ruiz de los Panos y Angel and Jose Sala Pico

As a young seminarian, Pedro Ruiz, of Mora, Spain, joined the “Diocesan Worker Priests,” a priestly fraternity, founded in 1883, devoted to the fostering of vocations to the priesthood and the formation of seminarians. In 1905, Pedro was ordained a priest at the age of twenty-three. Over the years that followed, he authored several books on priestly formation and served on the faculties of four Spanish seminaries. For six years (1927-1933) Father Ruiz served as rector of the Pontifical Spanish College in Rome. In 1933, he became general director of the Diocesan Worker Priests. On July 23, 1936, Father Ruiz was in Toledo to found a new religious congregation for women, the Disciples of Jesus, dedicated to fostering vocations, when he was arrested by forces of the anti-Catholic Popular Front. Later that same day, he was shot to death in the street together with a fellow member of the Diocesan Worker Priests, Father Jose Sala Pico, rector of Toledo’s minor seminary.