Blessed Rafael was born in Valencia on 18 January 1917 to José and María de los Ángeles and was baptised in Valencia, in the Parish of San Juan, on 19 January 1917.
Rafael was the youngest child in an upper-middle-class family in Valencia, which was very attentive to the religious, moral, social and cultural education of its children. His mother, María Garín Martí, and his older brothers were his role models from childhood. His father, José Lluch Meléndez, a mathematics professor, died on 24 October 1918, when Rafael was just two years old.
In 1928, the family moved to Madrid. In 1931, the youth branch of the Association of the Miraculous Medal was founded in the Basilica of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal, and among its founders were his brothers Vicente and Santiago. The latter was a great Pauline missionary in North America and an excellent musician. Rafael also belonged to the Association and helped during Mass in the Basilica when Fr. Serra celebrated. In 1933, they returned to Valencia, without losing contact with the Marian centre of the Basilica of the Miraculous Virgin in Madrid. In 1936, Rafael was a 19-year-old young man in excellent health and athletic build, cheerful, intelligent, very responsible, generous, of sound morals, helpful, pious and with a fine artistic sensibility. In the midst of religious persecution, he carried an image of the Virgin of the Forsaken in his pocket. Warned of the danger of carrying religious symbols, he replied, ‘They will take my life before they take my Mother.’ From the home of his friend José Luis Giménez Sanchín, in La Cañada, near Valencia, they could hear the machine guns shooting people in the Paterna riding school. He declared that if they came to take him away, he would die shouting ‘Long live Christ the King!’ And that is what he did. On 20 July 1936, his brother-in-law, the pharmacist of Picassent (Valencia), was arrested, and he took over the business. He ran the pharmacy with the approval of the Republican authorities, but under strict control. At sunset on 12 October 1936, two militiamen and a girl from Alcàsser with a belt and a pistol inspected the pharmacy. They took his Altión bicycle, which he used as a means of transport, and he did not protest. But when the militiamen began to blaspheme against the Mother of God and wanted to tear down the picture of the Virgin Mary that was in the laboratory area, Rafael told them to take what they wanted, but not to touch the Virgin. Faced with this attitude, the militiaman said, ‘Are you leaving this handsome boy here?’ They took him immediately to prison. They held him for three days in the Civil Guard barracks in Sollana, inciting him to blaspheme, with threats of retaliation, and on 15 October they killed him in Silla. The murderous militiamen gave his mother this note found in his pocket: ‘Don’t cry, Mum; I want you to be happy, because your son is very happy. I will give my life for our God. I’ll wait for you in Heaven.’
Office of General Postulation
