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
Saint Marciana of Toledo literature and would therefore be familiar to the people of Toledo. It is no great surprise that St. Marciana is the patron saint who is “invoked to cure wounds”, considering the way in which she became a martyr and a saint. According to some, since St. Marciana was wounded several times by different wild animals, she has endured this tribulation and is therefore able to be called upon to assist in the healing of others’ wounds and empathize with the wounded on earth. Although a patron saint of Toledo, there has been speculation that the Marciana of Toledo is actually