Blessed Juan Lucena Rivas

Juan Lucena Rivas (Baena, Córdoba, January 4, 1895 – Puente Genil, Córdoba, July 27, 1936) was a Spanish priest. He is considered one of the martyrs of the religious persecution in the Diocese of Córdoba between 1936 and 1939. He entered the San Pelagio Seminary in Córdoba in 1907, first as an external seminarian living with his uncle, Julián Rivas Rojano, and later as a resident. He was confirmed on December 16, 1908, at the Parish of San Francisco y San Eulogio in Córdoba by Bishop José Proceso Pozuelo y Herrero. At the end of 1916, he was sent to Rome to further his studies and enrolled at the Pontifical Gregorian University. In Rome, on March 10, 1918, he was ordained a subdeacon by Cardinal Rafael Merry del Val. He also received the second prize at the Pontifical Academy of Saint Thomas Aquinas. He returned to Córdoba that same spring. He was ordained a priest on June 14, 1919, by Bishop Ramón Guillamet y Coma. On October 16, 1923, he was appointed priest of the Parish of Our Lady of the Purification in Puente Genil, and on June 3, 1928, after passing a competitive examination, he took permanent possession of the post. On July 24, 1936, he was arrested and imprisoned in a railway carriage used as a jail, along with 19 other prisoners. On July 27, he was taken to the cemetery of Puente Genil, where he was executed by firing squad. His mortal remains were thrown into a bonfire.