The Augustinian Recollect Martín Legarra Tellechea (1910-1985) was a direct witness of several great events of the 20th century. He developed his ministerial service with optimism, sympathy and communication skills. His life as a missionary, educator and bishop could have served as a movie script.
Japan attacks Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 and the next day begins its rapid occupation of the Philippines, one of the worst defeats in United States history with 23,000 casualties between soldiers captured, wounded and dead.
Although the Philippines had enjoyed partial independence since 1907, the headquarters of the United States Navy Pacific Fleet, with Douglas MacArthur at front, was in Corregidor, in Manila Bay. More than 800,000 Americans lived in the country.
On December 26, 1941, MacArthur declared Manila an “open city” for avoid a massacre and retreat. On January 2, the Japanese entered. Both recollect convents of Manila (Intramuros and San Sebastián) became home and refuge for religious of nationalities of countries at war, trying to take advantage of Spain’s neutral status.
During the next three years, the friars barely managed to exercise the ministry. The Japanese army seizes the part of Intramuros destined for the provincial, so Martín moved to San Sebastián. This, ultimately, will save his life.
Since he had already taken the subjects before the occupation, Fray Martín received on July 27, 1942 the Bachelor in Pedagogy. For a time he is forced to study Japanese because of the imposition of the invaders to teach his language in all educational centers. To avoid any collusion, the Recollects close the Colegio de San Sebastián and release Fray Martín from that obligation.
However, all this took its toll on his health. In addition, there are huge tensions between the prior provincial and some dissatisfied with his decisions in such dramatic circumstances and total isolation from the outside world.
MacArthur, in Australia, in March 1942, gave his famous speech: “I will return” [to the Philippines]. In the fall of 1944 he fulfilled his promise, with 175,000 troops he frees Leyte and Mindoro. The shocks and distrust of the invaders increase. Martín loses several kilos and to continue wearing his pants he ties them behind. A Japanese soldier, seeing a bulge on his back covered by a habit, pounced on him in search of an alleged weapon.
In the convents there are searches with the excuse of looking for radio stations. The Japanese misinterpret elements foreign to their culture and knowledge, like the books of masses, where names, dates and numbers appear. Friar martin vented by writing hundreds of pages with these experiences, but he wanted to get rid of them during a destination transfer.
The Americans, superior in number and equipment, soon presented themselves to the gates of Manila. At the end of January 1945 they are only 60 kilometers away. Be the third bloodiest battle (behind only Stalingrad and Nanking) of World War II with 100,000 dead, most of them civilians killed in cold blood in 26 eternal days, between February 6 and March 4, 1945.
12,500 sailors and 4,500 Japanese, commanded by Rear Admiral Sanji Iwabuchi, they set up barricades, mined the streets and cut down the trees to block the pass. Then they entrenched themselves in Intramuros, where the headquarters of the
Province of Saint Nicholas of Tolentine. They used civilians as a human shield, first, and cannon fodder, later. The walled city defenses over three centuries earlier by the Spanish and the Pásig River give them time to slaughter more.
They set fire to everything, threw grenades where there were refugees and they killed without discrimination, even their allies. One of the largest massacres at the German Consulate, and at the Spanish Consulate, 70 people and even Franco was tempted to declare war on Japan.
The Augustinian Recollects had sent in September 1944 to their religious in the Philippines seek a safe haven and hide from the Japanese troops. In the case of Intramuros, from the headquarters, three religious volunteered to guard the facilities: Mariano Alegría, Simeón Asensio and Martín Legarra. But on the afternoon of February 3, 1945, the Americans already blocked the passage and it was inaccessible. Nor did they give time for the six Recollect religious who were there to leave and the Japanese killed. The story of this house and its tragic end has been narrated in this documentary:
Fray Martín escaped certain death and perhaps, shocked by it, searched with courage until finding the only survivor of that massacre, Belarmino de Celis, whom he interviewed for the Province Bulletin.
During the battle, Martín joined a team of four Red Cross doctors to comfort, encourage, assist the sick and injured. San Sebastián, where he lives, is full of refugees and sleeps in the sacristy. He remembers his days as a chaplain in Cañacao and his attention make San Sebastián one of the places preferred for Catholic American soldiers. This brings advantages for care for refugees and alleviate their misery and hunger.
As provincial secretary, it is his turn to multiply to obtain information on religious throughout the country, where and how they are, to organize a return to normality… Restart communications with the outside, closed for almost three years. He sends reports, reports and chronicles to explain what they have just experienced.
The 16,000 American bombs on Intramuros and the Japanese fires made it impossible to recover the province of Saint Nicholas of Intramuros. Still Provincial secretary, Martín will then return to Europe.
Because of the terrible events, the Province does not celebrate the Chapter of 1943. The communities of Spain, China, the United States, Venezuela, Trinidad and Peru cannot communicate with the prior provincial. As soon as the war ended the provincial and Martin boarded for San Francisco, crossed the United States (Omaha, Kansas, New York) and arrive in Bilbao, Spain, in December 1945.
Christmas of that year will be for Martín of deep emotions; first, because he visits his family after the war experience; second, because he visits the families of the Recollect religious who died in the Philippines during the war. Martín spreads the missionary spirit to numerous towns in Navarra in which he preaches. He also visits the Theologate of Marcilla.
After a special Chapter in which voting is carried out by mail and not there is a face-to-face meeting, on May 11, 1946 he ceased as provincial secretary. Fixed his residence in Zaragoza and his work focuses on chaplaincies and batches of spiritual exercises, but also in public communication (reviews, conferences…), until the new provincial, Santos Bermejo, plans to open a school in Cebu, Philippines, to recover the decision of 1941 broken by the war to start the educational apostolate.
NEXT PAGE: 6. Martin, educator
TABLE OF CONTENTS
- Introduction
- 1. An open mind to the unknown
- 2. Martin and religious life
- 3. Philippines, learning and new responsibilities
- 4. Even more open to the world
- 5. Chronicler of the greatest nightmare
- 6. Martin, educator
- 7. Martin, educator of religious
- 8. Martín is reunited with Spain
- 9. Martin in Bocas del Toro
- 10. Martin in Veraguas
- 11. Bishop emeritus, not retired
- 12. A Week of Easter