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Two Carmelite priests who once worked in Tucson are among 498 martyrs of the Spanish Civil War who will be beatified in Rome this fall.

Beatification is the second to last step toward sainthood.

The Rev. Lucas Tristany and the Rev. Eduardo Farré — both priests with the Discalced Carmelite Friars who lived and worked in Tucson — will be among 498 martyrs of 20th century Spain who will be beatified Oct. 28.

The ceremony will take place at the Basilica of St. Paul in Rome, Roman Catholic Diocese of Tucson Bishop Gerald F. Kicanas reported Monday in his weekly memo to parishioners.

"It is a very historical moment. These men went back to Spain knowing full well they were going to risk their lives and face death in the face of religious freedom," said Deacon George Rodriguez of the East Side Our Mother of Sorrows Catholic Church.

Rodriguez and his wife, Maria, will lead a religious pilgrimage to Italy for the beatifications.

Tristany became the first pastor of the Downtown-area Holy Family Catholic Church in 1915. He also served at Holy Cross in Morenci, Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Florence and at Santa Cruz Catholic Church on Tucson's South Side. Farré ministered at Holy Family and also at Santa Cruz. Both men became American citizens while they were in Arizona.

Both Tristany and Farré returned to Spain and died there in 1936 during the Spanish Civil War — an era punctuated by strong anticlerical sentiment.

According to research by the Rev. Jose Luis Ferroni, who is the associate pastor at Santa Cruz, Tristany was shot in the back outside the Carmelite monastery in downtown Barcelona. He was 64. A mural commemorating Tristany can still be seen inside the sacristy at the Barcelona monastery, Ferroni said.

Farré was preaching a novena to Carmelite nuns in Tiana, Spain, in July 1936 when he received news of the war and urged the nuns to leave the cloister. Ferroni says Farré took refuge in a nearby home for several days until he was confronted by militia and told them he was a Carmelite friar. He was taken away in a large truck and was never seen again. He was 39.

Ferroni explained that the test for a religious martyr is someone who dies for their faith. While in some cases years can pass between beatification and canonization, Ferroni says the time period for martyrs is usually short. When a martyr is canonized to sainthood there is not the normal Vatican requirement of two miracles linked to the person's intervention, he explained.

"I anticipate big celebrations with these beatifications," Ferroni said. "Once that happens they are considered 'blessed,' which means churches can be named after them … The occasion is also a tribute to the people of the U.S. It is a way of the Vatican recognizing the priests' work and ministry here."

Kicanas wrote in his memo that the upcoming beatifications represent, "an opportunity for intercessory prayer that the violence we experience in our world today because of political, economic or religious differences will cease."