Bl. Carlos Erana Gurceta was born in Aozaraza-Arechavaleta, Guipuzcoa, Spain, on 2 November 1884. He and his two companions, Bl. Fidel Fuidio and Bl. Jesus Hita, were Marianists religious, imprisoned in hatred of the faith in 1936 in Ciudad Real.

They were devoted to teaching and to the charism of their institute founded in Bordeaux in 1817 by Blessed Fr. William Joseph Chaminade.  The three met in Ciudad Real in the summer of 1936 and suffered separate martyrdom.

Carlos Erana was distinguished among the first generation of Spanish Marianists. When his school, the prestigious “Collegio Nuestra Señora del Pilar”, was requisitioned, he felt hunted in Madrid and made a dangerous journey to Ciudad Real to seek help from his former pupils. Tragically, he found the two schools there had already been requisitioned and the communities scattered.  “It will be as God wishes”, he would say, as he calmly visited his confreres, without concealing his religious status.

He was executed at dawn on 18 September 1936 near Alarcos. His companions, Fidel and Jesús were martyred shortly thereafter.