9:30 a.m. passed and tranquility, as usual, reigned in the monastery Holy Spirit of Mount Gilet (Valence). Some religious people were having breakfast, others had already finished and were heading to their rooms to continue their prayers. A few minutes later, a man jumped over the fence and entered the sacred enclosure with a stick, displaying a violent and provocative attitude that alarmed the Franciscans. “I am Jesus Christ and I am going to kill the brothers”he shouted.
He began roaming the corridors of the convent and attacked anyone who crossed his path. He injures seven monks with a cane, a crozier and a glass bottle. The one who took the worst was Brother Juan Antonio Llorente Espína 76-year-old Franciscan born in the Murcian town of Cehegín, with almost five decades of pious profession, who received several critical blows to the head.
It was Fray Ángel Ramón, one of the best-known brothers of the monastery for his popular YouTube channel on which he publishes cooking recipes, who managed to intimidate and chase away the attacker, in addition to warning the services emergency and the Civil Guard. “I was in the kitchen and I heard a scream. I went up thinking someone had fallen and saw a big man punching and kicking,” he said. 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 last Monday after two days immersed in a state of “brain death” due to the serious neurological injuries suffered during 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, issued a statement asking for prayers for the soul of the deceased friar 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, who will give us comfort and strength to overcome this tragedy,” they emphasize.
Likewise, they attribute to official sources that the attacker is a habitual consumer of various products. narcotic substances and that he would be under the effects at the time of the events, in addition to suffering from psychotic attacks. “We also ask that the aggressor 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 gave his spirit to the Lord following the serious injuries suffered in his convent of Santo Espíritu del Monte, where he was beaten with cruelty and betrayal by an allegedly disturbed person. Fray Juan Antonio was 76 years old and 46 of religious profession», noted the Franciscan province in an official note.
Hostel
For its part, the monastery has thanked its faithful through social networks and is trying to recover from an attack on a sacred place restored in 1878. For ten years, it has also offered the possibility of staying in an ideal place for walking and get the much-needed relaxation after escaping the city.
Concerning the state of the rest of the religious injured during the attack and who remain hospitalized, that of 95 years old who was transferred from the Sagunto hospital to the Valencia Clinic returned to the latter, while the 66-year-old man remains admitted to the same hospital.
The Civil Guard arrested a 46-year-old man on Sunday in connection with the events, notably 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 arrested in the early hours of Sunday and is due to appear in court on Tuesday.
