When the civil war broke out in July 1936, Paredes was in Madrid. A month earlier, realizing that war was imminent, he expressed his desire to travel back to the Philippines. However, even after he was permitted by his superiors in Rome, Paredes could not leave Spain because the government would not issue him a passport. Providentially, Paredes had left his Madrid convent the night before it was attacked by armed men on July 19, 1936. After this event, Paredes, along with other Dominicans, had to be sheltered by a benefactor, Don Pedro Errazquin, himself murdered after a chalice belonging to Paredes was found in his house. Being constantly under police surveillance, Paredes had to stay in a boarding house, where he continued to perform his priestly duties: hearing confessions, praying the office, and celebrating the Eucharist. On August 11, he was arrested by armed men, and bravely he declared himself a priest and a religious. He was taken to a place of torture, and in the morning of the following day, he was shot in Valdesenderín del Encinar. His rosary and his breviary were found near his cadaver.