Biography
Francisco Pinazo Peñalver
About Francisco Pinazo Peñalver
Francisco Pinazo Peñalver was born at El Chopo near Alpuente in Valencia on 24 August 1802 and was baptized Bartolomé. He joined the Franciscan novitiate as a lay brother in 1831. After professing, he served as sacristan at Gandía. The suppression of religious houses in Spain in 1835 forced him out of ordinary community life, but he continued serving the church there.
Pinazo joined the Franciscan Custody of the Holy Land in 1843. He served communities in Damascus, Jerusalem, Nicosia, Nazareth and Jaffa, with practical work that included cooking, tailoring and care of the sacristy. Returning to Damascus, he was sacristan at the friary of Saint Paul in 1860. He was a brother rather than a priest; the order records his work without attributing the ministries of his priest companions to him.
On the night of 9–10 July 1860, attackers entered the Franciscan friary amid wider violence against Christians in Damascus. Pinazo died there with seven other friars and three Maronite laymen. The sources describe the group as martyrs, but do not resolve which calendar day each person died, so this record preserves July 1860 without a day. The eleven were canonized on 20 October 2024.
The Custody of the Holy Land commemorates the Martyrs of Damascus on 10 July. That memorial date follows the overnight event and does not establish an individual death day for Pinazo. His recorded assignments show how a lay brother’s daily service belonged to the community’s mission. The group account must remain distinct from the individual evidence for him.
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