José Pascual Corbató Chillida (1862–1913),éCorbató known also as José Domingo Corbató, Padre Corbató or Francisco María Cruz, was a Spanish Roman Catholic priest. Between 1891 and 1912 he animated 7 local and short-lived Valencian periodicals. In the mid-1890s he was briefly catapulted to celebrity status when he was trialed for asserting that the regent Maria Christina was leading the Spanish freemasonry. Politically Corbató initially sided with Carlism and was its vehement propagandist. In the 20th century he developed his own political doctrine: Traditionalism formulated in highly providentialist and millenarian terms. In historiography his political trajectory is considered typical for some disintegration patterns within Carlism; Corbató himself is viewed as representative of a heterodox breed of españolismo.
Family and youth
Corbató's ancestors were probably farmers; at some point one of their representatives managed to access lower professional strata. His father, José Corbató Cardá, was related to the Levantine town of Benlloc, where in the mid-19th century he worked as a teacher in local primary school. At unspecified time he married Vicenta Chillida Planell; none of the sources consulted provides any information either on her or her family, except that they were entitled to a petty rural rent. The couple had 5 children, José born third in succession and the first male descendant. The family was very pious; already at the age of 4 José knew how to pray a rosary, some of his cousins became priests, and 3 of the Corbató Chillida siblings became religious themselves.
Following the 1868 revolution Corbató Cardá fervently opposed the new order; he declared himself supporter of the legitimist claimant Carlos VII and refused to take oath to the constitution of 1869. As a result, he was not only fired from his petty teaching job, but reportedly also jailed, detained in Valencia and threatened with execution; during his incarceration the family suffered great economic hardships. Upon Corbató Cardá's release in 1871 he was reinstated to the official job but posted some 60 km away to Zorita, in the Castellón Maestrazgo already bordering Aragón; the entire family settled in the town as well.
Upon outbreak of the Third Carlist War José 4 times escaped from home to enlist to legitimist troops, always rejected due to his age. In 1874 and posing as a 15-year-old he was eventually admitted, assigned to the garrison of Cantavieja. Shortly afterwards he was transferred to units commanded by Pascual Cucala and become POW during the battle of Miravet. For a few months he was shuttled between various prisons. Thanks to exchange of prisoners the boy returned to Carlist ranks, initially commanded by Francisco Savalls and then again by Cucala. He served in various units until Carlist troops in Catalonia surrendered in 1875. Exact role of the boy is not clear and it is not certain whether José took part in combat or performed some auxiliary roles.
In 1876 Corbató entered the Tortosa seminary. Following a brief spell in Dominican seminary in Belchite he then moved to the one in Corias, where he commenced novitiate and assumed the name of José Domingo. In 1880 he took simple vows and formally entered the Dominican Order, assigned to the Nuestra Señora de las Caldas monastery. His conventual years were marked by conflicts with superiors, including altercation with the future Dominican provincial superior, Cayetano García Cienfuego. In 1887 Corbató was moved to San Pablo convent in Palencia, where he was charged with fraud and temporarily suspended. Shuttled between Valdeprado del Río, Palencia and Corias, he was also accused of indecent correspondence. In 1889 Vatican was asked for his interminable suspension. Eventually Corbató retained his ministerial licenses and was allowed to live extraconventual life. In 1890 he moved to Villareal to settle with his parents.