Francisco Ferrer; his life, work and martyrdom, with message written ...

:
FRANCISCO FERRER
His Life, Work and Martyrdom
Published on the first anniversary of his death by the Francisco Ferrer Association
241 Fifth Avenue, New York
Edited by Leonard D. Abbott
FRANCISCO FERRER was born at Alella, near
Barcelona, in 1859. His parents, well-to-do farmers,
were devoted Catholics, but he, as soon as he
began to think for himself, became a Freethinker.
In 1879 he proclaimed himself a Republican. He took
part in an abortive revolution led by General Villacampa,
was compelled to flee to Paris, and there became
secretary to the Spanish Republican leader, Ruiz Zorrilla.
While in Paris, Ferrer supported himself by giving
lessons in Spanish. A lady by the name of Mile. Meunier
became his pupil and his confidante. He told her of a
hope he had conceived of a new Spain freed from the
stifling grip of Roman Catholicism, and regenerated by
education and progressive ideals. She sympathized with
his vision, and when she died left him a large bequest.
Ferrer returned to Spain, and in 1901 started the first
of his Modern Schools. He used as text-books some of
the greatest radical and scientific works of the day, by
Kropotkin, by Elisee Reclus, and others.
From the first the Roman Catholics were bitterly hostile
to the Modern Schools. They looked for an excuse
to suppress them, and in 1906 their opportunity came.
Mateo Morral, who had been connected with the
schools, threw a bomb at the King and Queen of Spain.
Ferrer was charged with complicity in the act, and held
in prison for a whole year. But nothing could be proved
against him.
The second opportunity of the clericals came in July,
1909, when an uprising inspired by indignation against
an unjust war in Morocco took place in Barcelona.
Ferrer was arrested again, this time on the charge of
having been the head and chief of the Barcelona uprising.
The second charge was as false as the first one.
Nevertheless, he was condemned to death by a courtmartial,
and was shot at Montjuich fortress on October
13. His last words were
"Long Live the Modern School!"