Rutilio Grande [SEP] country of citizenship
Rutilio Grande
Rutilio Grande García, S.J., (5 July 1928 in El Paisnal – 12 March 1977 in Aguilares) was a Jesuit priest in El Salvador. He was assassinated in 1977, along with two other Salvadorans. He was the first priest assassinated before the civil war started and a close friend of Archbishop Óscar Arnulfo Romero. After his death, the Archbishop changed his conservative attitude toward the government and urged the government to investigate the murder.
Life and work.
Rutilio Grande was born on 5 July 1928
Archbishop Romero presided over Mass, which lasted until midnight. The next morning, responding to a radio announcement by the Archbishop, streams of peasants began walking into El Paisnal for a 9:00 AM Memorial Mass. They came from near and far to mourn the death of their beloved priest and his friends. The next Sunday, Archbishop Romero declared a "single Mass," a memorial mass for Rutilio Grande at the cathedral in San Salvador, as the only Mass to be offered in the country. The move drew criticism from Church officials