VATICAN CITY, APRIL 22, 2004 (Zenit.org).- Among the six people John Paul II will beatify this Sunday is Eusebia Palomino Yenes, a religious Daughter of Mary Help of Christians, who predicted the bloody Spanish Civil War.
The key document in the process of her beatification includes a dialogue between Sister Eusebia and Josefa García Mariscal, in which the future blessed predicts the war that broke out in 1936.
Sister Eusebia told the witness that “there is going to be a very great civil war and much innocent blood will be spilled because Spain is not at peace with itself.”
Sister Eusebia Palomino offered herself as a victim for the salvation of souls in her country in 1931. According to Benedictine Manuel Garrido Boñano, “The Lord accepted her. This was followed by three years of unspeakable pains.”
Eusebia Palomino Yenes was born to a poor family on Dec. 15, 1899, in Cantalpino, a small village in the province of Salamanca.
After her religious profession, she was sent to the House in Valverde del Camino, a small city of 9,000 in the southwest mining area of Andalucia.
At first, the girls of the school and oratory were disappointed with the nun. Small and pale, with coarse hands and an unattractive name, she did not seem very impressive.
Soon, however, the girls were fascinated by Sister Eusebia’s stories of missionary deeds, lives of saints, episodes of Marian devotion, and anecdotes of Don John Bosco, which the nun made even more appealing because of her conviction and simple faith.
She became an “apostle of Merciful Love according to Jesus’ revelations to religious Faustina Kowalska, divulged in Spain by Dominican Father Juan Arintero,” says a biography issued by the Holy See.
In August 1932 an unexpected illness was the first sign that God had accepted the “victim,” the text adds. “Then she had asthma, which had troubled her at various times, and now reached extremely intolerant levels, aggravated by other illnesses that kept appearing and threatening her life.”
Visions of blood afflicted Sister Eusebia even more than her physical pains. Visions of blood also involved her beloved director, Sister Carmen Moreno Benítez, who was eventually shot together with another woman religious on Sept. 6, 1936. Sister Carmen has been declared blessed, after the recognition of her martyrdom.
Sister Eusebia’s worsening illness baffled her doctor. Coupled with asthma, it tormented her limbs and left her curled up. Sister Eusebia died on the night of Feb. 9-10, 1935.
