Born (Luis Valls Matamales) on May 3, 1870, at Benaguacil (Valencia) and baptized on May 4, 1870, in the parish of Our Lady of the Assumption at Benaguacil, he was confirmed in the parish of Liria (Valencia). He was the son of Don Valentin Valls and Dona Mariana Matamales. Hejoined the Capuchin Order in 1890, recieving the habit on May 28, 1891, and made his perpetual profession on May 30, 1894. Ordained priest on September 22, 1894, he celebrated his first Mass in the Capuchin friary at Sanlucar de Barrameda (Cadiz).

“He was a very modest religious” said Sr. Maria Amparo Ortells, “and always looked recollected. He was very humble. Everything seemed too much for him and you could see that he had a great spirit of prayer. He was extremely devoted to Our Lady.” “Among his fellow friars he was considered a good religious, faithful in his observance of the Franciscan Rule and very devoted to our Father St. Francis”. He worked in the apostolates of preaching, the ministry of confession and spiritual direction. “His preference was to work as a confessor and as a director of the Third Order of St. Francis. His main apostolate was preaching”. IN the Capuchin Province of Valencia he was reckoned as one of the best preachers. His transparent devotion to Our Lady pervades a small work of his dedicated to Our Lady of Montiel, entitled “Historias, Novenas, Favores y Montielerias de Nuestra Senora de Montiel, venerada en ermita de Benaguacil” (Stories, Novenas, Favors and Anecdotes of Our Lady of Montiel, venerated in her hermitage in Benaguacil), which went to its third edition in 1934.

TheReligious persecution broke out in Spain in 1936 while he was living in the Friary at Massamagrell (Valencia). He took refuge in the house of Dona Maria Orts Lloris at Vinalesa. From his hiding place he desired to die for Christ in the Catholic Church. “He had no reaction against martyrdom” said Dona Maria Orts, “in fact on the contrary, he ardently longed to die for Christ. His reaction to the danger he was facing was one of great serenity and courage. They will probably kill me, he would say, but nothing will happen to you and that is how it was.”

He was arrested at Vinalesa on the night of Ausgust 24, 1936, taken by car to valencia and killed that same night. At that moment, as Dona Maria tells it, ” the servant of God asked us to pray that he would not turn back on his course. The militia were armed with shotguns and machine guns. Bro. Ambrose was taken from our house for interrogation by the committee of Vinalesa. An hour later, they led him to the place of martyrdom. I know that on the way they insulted him andmaltreated him, accusing him of the crime of preaching a sermon against communism at Benaguacil, to which the servant of God replied: I preached only God’s teaching and the gospel.

Blessed Ambrose of Benaguacil of the Franciscan Capuchin Order from Valencia Spain is one of the thousands of Priests and religious martyred during the Spanish Civil War in 1936 for the hatred of the Faith. He and other Capuchin martyrs were beatified by Pope John Paul II on March 11, 2001 along with 240 other martyrs.