Red Terror (Spain) on 25 July, feast day of St James, patron saint of Spain. August saw a further 2,077 clerical victims. After just two months of civil war, 3400 priests, monks and nuns had been murdered. According to recent research, some of the Republican death squads were heavily staffed by members of the Soviet Union's secret police, the NKVD. According to author Donald Rayfield, "Stalin, Yezhov, and Beria distrusted Soviet participants in the Spanish war. Military advisors like Vladimir Antonov-Ovseenko, journalists like Koltsov were open to infection by the heresies, especially Trotsky's, prevalent among the Republic's supporters. NKVD agents sent to Spain
Order of Saint Mary of Spain of advocación mariana, which honors the Virgen del Rosell. Order of Saint Mary of Spain The Order of Saint Mary of Spain (Spanish: Orden de Santa María de España), also known as the Order of the Star, was a Spanish military order concentrating in naval activity created by Alfonso X of Castile, King of León and Castile in 1270. The order was founded around the year 1270 by King Alfonso X of Castile with the purpose of aiding the naval defenses of the Crown of Castile. It was founded similarly to the Order of Calatrava and its members were made