9:30 a.m. passed and tranquility, as usual, reigned in the monastery Holy Spirit of Mount Gilet (Valencia). Some religious were having breakfastothers had already finished and were going to their rooms to continue with their prayers. Minutes later, a man jumped over the fence and entered the sacred precinct with a stick, showing a violent and defiant attitude that alarmed the Franciscans. “I am Jesus Christ and I am going to kill the friars”he shouted.
He began to walk through the corridors of the convent and attacked everyone who crossed his path. He wounded seven religious with a cane, a crosier and a glass bottle. The one who took the worst part was Brother Juan Antonio Llorente Espína 76-year-old Franciscan born in the Murcian town of Cehegín, with almost five decades of devout profession, who received several critical blows to the head.
It was Fray Ángel Ramón, one of the best-known friars of the monastery for his popular YouTube channel on which he posts cooking recipes, who managed to intimidate and drive away the attacker, in addition to notifying the emergency services and the Civil Guard. «I was in the kitchen and I heard a scream. I went up thinking that someone had fallen and I saw a big man punching and kicking,” he told Four. «He seemed to have gone crazy», he stressed.
The most serious religious was immediately transferred to the Clinical Hospital of Valencia, where he finally died this past Monday after two days immersed in a state of ‘brain death‘ because of the serious neurological injuries suffered in the attack on the monastery, located in the hills of Gilet, 30 kilometers north of Valencia.
The Province of the Immaculate Conception, to which the Franciscan convent belongs, has issued a statement to request a prayer for the soul of the deceased brother and the speedy recovery of those who remain hospitalized and dismayed by the tragedy. “In these days of pain, we trust in the love and peace of Christ, our supreme good, He will give us the comfort and strength to overcome this tragedy,” they point out.
Likewise, they attribute to official sources that the aggressor is a habitual consumer of various narcotic substances and that he would be under its effects at the time of the events, in addition to suffering from psychotic breaks. “We also ask for the aggressor to be aware of the damage and be able to rectify behavior that is not at all typical of the human condition,” the religious pray.
«Our brother Brother Juan Antonio Llorente Espín has given his spirit to the Lord as a result of the serious injuries suffered in his Santo Espíritu del Monte convent, where he was beaten with cruelty and treachery by an alleged disturbed person. Fray Juan Antonio had turned 76 years of age and 46 of religious profession», noted the Franciscan province in an official note.
Hostel
For its part, the monastery has thanked its followers through social networks and is trying to recover from an attack on a sacred place that was restored in 1878. For ten years, it has also offered the possibility of staying in a place ideal for walking and getting the necessary relaxation after fleeing the city.
Regarding the condition of the rest of the religious who were injured in the attack and remain admitted to the hospital, that of 95 years who was transferred from the Sagunto hospital to the Valencia Clinic has returned to the latter, while the 66-year-old remains admitted to this same hospital.
The Civil Guard arrested a 46-year-old man on Sunday in relation to the events, specifically in a squatted apartment in the town of Puerto de Sagunto. The arrested person was transferred to the Civil Guard barracks in Puçol after being detained during the early hours of Sunday and is scheduled to appear in court this Tuesday.
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