Blessed Jocund Bonet Mercadé

Jocund Bonet Mercadé (Tarragona, 1874 – Reus, August 14, 1936) was a Catalan priest who died at the beginning of the Spanish Civil War. He served as a soldier in the Cuban War, and after completing his studies at the Seminary of Tarragona, he was ordained a priest in 1900 by Archbishop Tomàs Costa i Fornaguera. He was appointed vicar of the Tarragona Cathedral and later, in 1915, regent and rector of the Parish of Saint John in Reus. He worked to find patrons for the construction of the parish church, which had begun in 1912. The Church of Saint John was inaugurated in 1932 by Cardinal Vidal i Barraquer, although it was not yet finished. It appears that Father Bonet dedicated all his savings to financing the construction of the church. In Reus, he organized the Women's Catholic Action and the Youth Section, and he contributed assiduously to the *Semanario Católico de Reus*, a newspaper with a conservative ideology. At the beginning of the Civil War, he was hiding in the home of some friends, but a group of militiamen found him. Taken to the Falset road (the current N-420), at the junction leading to the Pere Mata Institute, they forced him out and shot him. He is buried in the Reus Cemetery. He has been considered a blessed and a martyr by the Catholic Church since the Beatification of Tarragona.