Four friars were hospitalized after a man entered the Santo Espíritu del Monte monastery in Gilet, Valencia province, and attacked members of the Franciscan community. The Civil Guard began searching for a middle-aged suspect who fled after the assault and had not been identified or detained at the time of the report.
The intruder entered the grounds at about 10 a.m. by climbing over a perimeter fence. The evidence said he carried a metal bar and intended to kill friars, an intention attributed to words that members of the community said they heard during the attack. He moved through residential rooms and assaulted the religious men he encountered.
The most seriously injured victim was 76 and suffered traumatic brain injuries. A SAMU emergency medical team treated him and transferred him to Valencia’s Hospital Clínico. Early information from the Civil Guard incorrectly reported that he had died, but the contemporaneous account clarified that he was alive and hospitalized.
Three other friars, aged 57, 66 and 95, were taken to Sagunto Hospital by basic life-support units with trauma or bruising of varying severity. Sources from the Franciscan provincial house in Madrid said their lives were not believed to be in danger. The supplied report did not provide more detailed diagnoses or recovery timelines.
The separate destinations reflected the different level of care described in the report: the most serious patient went to Hospital Clínico with a specialist emergency team, while the other three were transported to Sagunto. No inference about their eventual outcomes can be made from those initial transfers.
Seven religious lived at the monastery. In a statement, provincial minister Fray Joaquín Zurera Ribó said an individual he described as disturbed entered the convent and attacked friars in their rooms. Two members of the community avoided the assault because one, Fray Antonio Ivars Solbes, was in the garden and another, Fray Federico Allara Aragó, was away serving Mass as chaplain.
The Franciscan statement condemned the violence and expressed solidarity with the injured men, referring both to their physical wounds and to the lasting emotional effect of the episode. It also said the community was praying for the attacker to recognize the harm caused and change his behavior.
The provincial minister said the assault required religious communities to pay closer attention to preventing entry by people who could cause harm. That response reflected the security concern created by an attack inside living quarters, while stopping short of announcing a specific change to access rules at the monastery.
At the event date, the investigation remained active. The available information established that the attacker breached the fence, injured four residents and escaped, but it did not provide his identity, whereabouts or a verified medical explanation for his conduct. References to his mental state came from the religious order’s description and were not a clinical finding.
The initial false death report also underscored the uncertainty common in the first hours after a violent incident. The corrected account left one friar seriously injured and three others hospitalized, with law enforcement continuing to pursue the person responsible.
