Brother ÀNGEL MARÍA CARRASCO FERNÁNDEZ

(al secolo: Angelo Filemón)

Simple professed

Born at Abarán on 16 February 1921.

Died at Ciempozuelos on 20 August 1942.

 On 20 August 1942, a young newly-professed Brother died in the house in Ciempozuelos (Madrid), aged 21 years 6 months in religion: Brother Ángel María Carrasco Fernández who, with a trembling hand, wrote in his spiritual notes: "I love you, my Mother! Do not abandon me! I give myself to you. I trust in your wisdom. I abandon myself to your mercy".

A few days before his death, his Novice Master, Brother Adriano García, remembered him as follows: "We who were close to him and knew him well, appreciate the many facets of his virtues and the deep and vivid furrow he left behind him as he passed through this Holy Novitiate, an indelible furrow that will remain here forever as a model and an enlightening guide that we must all follow in the path of Religious formation and Hospitality.

This courageous Brother devoted his young and joyful life to the service of the noblest cause of God and humanity: the sick, and especially those who arouse the strongest feelings of repulsion, such as the mentally ill, the crippled, those whose bodies are full of sores and suffering from contagious illnesses, who are unable to appreciate and thank him for his heroic sacrifice.

The notes and spiritual maxims in his notebooks were a song of love, the uninterrupted dirge of an ardent remembrance for Our Lady who was the great object of all his anxieties.

Fr Ernesto Ruíz, his companion in the Novitiate and privileged witness of his last sufferings that so prematurely ended his earthly life, recalls an episode that occurred "one afternoon when we went for a walk around Ciempozuelos, enjoying ourselves leaping about and running, following Ángel because everyone knew how he loved these things. Two hours later, on the way home, I noticed that Brother Ángel was lagging behind. I called out to him and he signalled to me me to wait for him to catch up. I walked back to him and found him looking pale and exhausted, yet feeling so joyful that we could not contain himself. "The Most Blessed Virgin," he told me, "has granted me what I have so ardently asked of her. I hope to be able to be with her soon". And, showing me the blood-stained handkerchief he had coughed into for the first time, he said: "Thank you, my Mother, thank you".

He was transferred to Córdoba to recover, and returned to Ciempozuelos to make his profession with the other novices, testifying to his love for the Order and to his edifying life. He died six months later in Ciempozuelos in 1942 aged 21.

His body rests in an urn in the sanctuary at Abarán (Murcia), his birthplace, in the mountains where he loved to sing the praises of Mary.