Foto com a mãe do Padre Luís Andreu, que após a morte do seu filho decidiu entrar para um convento, uma vez já ser viúva nessa altura.

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Died of happiness

If Father Luís Maria Andreu did not die of illness, once any health problem was unknown, then that he died?

Let us listen again to Mr. Fontaneda: "Whenever I spoke with my wife about this event, which was so strikingly impressive for all of us, we felt an unmistakable peace and serenity." We only found an answer to the question. Of what did Father Luis die? He died of happiness! Notwithstanding the fact that he had passed through a fraction of a second from a more complete normality to a state of corpse, a smile came over his lips. When I returned to Garabandal, I could hear the girls talking about Father Luis, and I listened. some of his ecstatic dialogues in which he spoke about him or him. All the events of that painful dawn of August 9 in Reinosa had a special meaning for me, in which the Providence of God and the Love of Mary played a very important role.

And that day went to Father Luís Maria Andreu that day, August 9, 1961, at 4:20 p.m., when he was returning from San Sebastião de Garabandal. After all this, we can better understand the case of Garabandal's first death: Father Luis could not stand the truth and the joy of everything he had seen. With all the certainty that Father Luis, leaving his forces by divine disposition, could not more than a few hours with the truth and with the joy of Garabandal ... died like "martyr", because it gave its unequivocal "testimony "with the surrender of his life (" Martyr "is a word of Greek origin, which means testimony.The early Church used it to designate who gave public testimony of Christ, or all those who confessed their faith before all, sacrificing his life.). It is also interesting to note that in Reinosa, the city where Father Luis died, there is the Church dedicated to Saint Sebastian, just as in Garabandal. As is well known, St. Sebastian was one of the first martyrs in the history of Christianity.

You just spoke with this last sentence. So I asked him something, but because he did not give me any answer, I said, "Father, are you all right?" He answered, "No, nothing, sleep." And he inclined his head, at the same time making a slight noise. Our driver José Salceda turned his head to Father Luis, and when he looked into his eyes, he exclaimed: "Father is very ill!" My wife quickly grabbed the back of her neck to check her wrist and shouted, "Stop, stop, because he does not have a pulse. We have a clinic here: we have to take him right away." I thought it was just dizziness and when I stopped the car, I started to open the door as I said, "Do not worry, Father, it's nothing, you'll see that it will pass with a little air." But my wife insisted, "We have to get him to the clinic immediately," and I said, "Do not talk nonsense." We took Father Luis to the clinic, which was a few meters from us, the nurse who opened the door, told us immediately that he was dead. I replied with my wife that it could not be ... and that I had to do something. The nurse gave him an injection, meanwhile Jose Salceda ran to call a doctor and a priest. The doctor (his name, Vicente González and the name of the establishment where Father Luis was taken was called "Montesclaros Clinic" (undoubtedly in honor of the Virgin of Montesclaros, who has his sanctuary in a place not far away of Reinosa, and who is greatly revered by the whole region.) He arrived ten minutes later, and could only see that he was already dead, and immediately the parish priest arrived and administered the Holy Anointing.

After the first moments of total nervousness and disconcert, we began to think better: I called his brother Father Ramon, who was in Valladolid, giving spiritual exercises to a community of nuns; I also communicated with Aguilar de Campo, and hours later my brothers and brother-in-law arrived. Fortunately Padre Royo Marin also came to Reinosa, who accompanied us and consoled us. (Father Royo Marin, though Levantino, had relatives in Reinosa, and this explains his stop there, for he surely ignored the unexpected death of Father Luis.) In the middle of the morning Father Ramón Andreu arrived. "

We can imagine the impression of Father Ramon when he met the corpse of that younger brother, thirty-six years old ... How to expect such a thing? He had never seen him sick, nor had he ever heard that he had a heart problem (he only knew of his allergy to hay and forced himself to take certain medicines during spring time) and had good reason to believe that he was full of vitality, because in Oña he played sports frequently, and in the days of vacations he went out with other companions to walk in the mountains. But these were the designs of God

Father Ramon, who had received the phone call at Valladolid around 06:15 AM, arrived at Reinosa at eleven that morning. After fulfilling mercifully with his brother, he went to collect the few belongings of his brother; among them, a small notebook that Father Luis carried in his pocket; the notebook number 3, where he had pointed out very briefly all the incidences related to the previous day in Garabandal. Then he was able to speak a little with Father Royo Marín, and from his lips he gathered these affirmations:

"This from Garabandal I have no doubt, the least that can be done is to take all this seriously." The ecstatic march was very clear to me: it was light and so fast that we could not follow the girls; where they were going, and they did not stumble at anything (I only noticed some very slight gliding on the wet grass.) Their eyes were wide open, but those eyes were "dead" for the sensory excitations that affect us all. brother knew a lot, he had to be a good teacher: he analyzed things well, and we agreed on everything "(Padre Royo Marín's opinion about Garabandal was very firm)."

Ten days later, on August 18, at 3:30 p.m., he would call a small group of people who went with him and Father Ramón Andreu to Santander from Castro Urdiales (Santander Village) to the next:

"I am very sick, with a fever of forty, but with much pity I can not go with you, but you go to the Bishop and say from my part without any reservation that that of San Sebastian de Garabandal is certainly supernatural. and if he does not want to go, we will take him as it is ... There is an urgent duty to accept all that God does with sufficient clarity. "

He said, "I could not go back to Garabandal, so I have no opinion about what happened after my last visit, but when I was there, I had no doubts that they were true."

"Today is the happiest day of my life ..."

It seemed like it was all over, that Father Andreu's story had ended at that moment, but that was not what happened .... Let's now listen to Father Ramón's notes on this point: "After Father Luis's funeral in Oña, and after accompanying my mother (a resident of Bilbao) for a few days, I went to Garabandal on the 14th of August of that year. When they entered the village, they came to greet me, the four girls, because they had seen me climb I have been told that when they were informed that Father Luis had died, they were sad ... (Conchita refers to this in her diary, pages 45-46:

"When we were sweeping, Jacinta's mother came very frightened, and she told us:" Father Luis Maria Andreu died! "And we did not want to believe because we had seen him in the house. and with all this, we left the church in the midst of this task, and we learned more about it.When they were about to die, their last words were: "Today is the happiest day of my life ... What a good mother we have in heaven! And died."

The girls also told me that Our Lady told them about my brother's death, and that they then asked him where he was and Our Lady replied with a smile; and that they said to him, "Why tell us, if we already know it?" The girls said: "Our Lady smiled!" ...

"A little while later, Loli handed me the Rosary I had received from my brother to kiss the Virgin, and I had lost." Loli said: "Our Lady told me clearly where the Rosary was, and I was able to find he then did nothing more than raise only a few stones. "

Image of Conchita with the brother of Father Luís Andreu, Ramón Andreu.

Years later, Jacinta and her daughter in the company of Father Ramón Andreu.

About brother's death

"It was August 14. I had just buried my brother Luis and had just arrived in Garabandal." A boy from Burgos came up to me and said, "We heard the girls during their ecstasies that said," Oh So, let's talk to Father Luís? "

"That left me totally disappointed. It seemed to me that this was a typical case of self-suggestion: my brother's unexpected death had seriously and strongly impressed the girls' spirit, and there was the result ... At that moment he wanted to leave Garabandal immediately. Indeed, I allowed myself to stay, but I did so only because my fellow travelers did not have the same hurry I had at that moment. What happened then? He went to the place where the girls were in ecstasy, and I listened to their "conversations" with or about Father Luis ... After a few minutes, I did not know what to think. I was truly astonished, for the girls, in repeating the words of their vision, told of my brother's death, about the details of his funeral, with very precise details about the special rituals of a priest's funeral. They even knew that in the case of my brother Father Luis there had been some exceptions to the traditional rules of funeral celebration; for example, had not put the cap on his head, and instead of a chalice a crucifix had been placed between his hands. Even the small ones explained the reason for these same variants.

On this occasion, I listened to them saying that my brother had died without making his profession, as it was true. They also spoke about me and my vows: They knew exactly the date, the place where I had spoken them, and the name of the Jesuit who had made these same vows to me! You must certainly understand my astonishment, my amazement, at all these rigorously exact details, which girls could not know in any way by human conduct ... "

At the first moment of ecstasy on the 14th (Father Ramón Andreu was present on that day, who was with the girls almost all day, and until 3 pm. Also on that day were the people of D. Alberto Martín Artajo (former Minister of And Father Lucio Rodrigo (Jesuit teacher of Comillas), and many people. "(Notes by D. Valentín), and it was around ten o'clock that the following happened:" The girls left in and they went through the streets of the village, sometimes together, sometimes separated, and when they gathered together, they burst with exclamations of joy, and for several hours from ten to twelve, but it was difficult to walk with them everywhere, because they were running very fast ... and yet they never stumbled, not with the many stones that were in the way, and also because the turns that the girls performed for population are constant, in all s directions and all the alleys. It was on these occasions that it was possible to hear the girls talking about my brother: "So, let's hear him speak? ... Oh, good!"

Indeed, the girls sensed the presence of Father Luis in their ecstasies and listened to his voice, maintaining the dialogue with him, but never seeing his figure. Conchita wrote about this in her diary p. 46-47:

After a few days of the death of Father Luis, Our Lady told us that we were going to speak with him. And on August 15, the feast of Our Lady of the Assumption, (on that day there were many excursions, and as these people did some scandals that day), it was the day that Our Lady had informed us that we would talk to Father Luis Maria Andreu ..., and She did not come. "