[15] Ordained a priest, in the 1880s he served as a presbyter in Málaga,[16] then parson of the San Pedro church,[17] and finally the dean of the cathedral, becoming a prestigious personality in the city.

Some data might suggest Emilio later frequented Colegio de 2a Enseñanza in Terque (a municipality 2 km from Bentarique); the college was a branch of the Almería Instituto, the state-run secondary education establishment.

[23] At unspecified time, though most likely in the early 1890s, the adolescent Emilio decided to follow in the footsteps of his uncle and to commence an ecclesiastic career; he entered the seminary in Málaga.

[26] In the very early 1900s Ruiz Muñoz was among teaching staff of the Málaga seminary, noted as “elocuente orador sagrado” and “Profesor del Seminario de aquella capital”.

At times he was noted as delivering sermons or taking part in local Catholic events;[40] he also resumed teaching duties at his alma mater, in 1916 recorded as Catedrático de Historia eclesiástica en el Seminario Conciliar.

At unspecified time[42] the papal nuncio Francesco Ragonesi “por orden a miento de Su Santidad” took an exceptional decision[43] and allowed Ruiz Muñoz to move back to Madrid to continue with editorial tasks while retaining his official canon position in Málaga.

[44] Since 1920 Ruiz Muñoz was back in Madrid, fairly seldom noted as delivering sermons in various churches (this time no particular temple prevailing)[45] and during feasts,[46] funerals[47] or weddings.

[57] In the mid-1900s Ruiz Muñoz established links with El Siglo Futuro, a Madrid-based Integrist daily; though of rather limited circulation,[58] it remained very popular among the parish clergy.

[63] In 1907 he started to publish also brief sarcastic pieces commenting articles in liberal newspapers; in this case, he used another pen-name, "Cabellero de las Calzas Prietas".

[74] One present-day historian lists Ruiz Muñoz as merely one of some ten key “colaboradores”,[75] but another one in a monograph, dedicated to the newspaper in the Republican era, features him as the second most often mentioned personality, referred on 68 pages and only after the director.

Their characteristic feature, typical for Integrist profile of El Siglo Futuro, was absolute Catholic intransigence, presented as the only proper, pope-approved form of religiosity, and refusal to accept so-called malmenorismo.

In the 1910s this intransigence was competitive versus conservative and especially liberal Catholicism; in the 1920s his primary target were emerging Christian-democratic groupings; in the 1930s the negative point of reference – apart from radical left-wing currents, considered in apocalyptic terms – was accidentalist Christianity advanced by CEDA[80] or abroad.

[90] His last stand-alone work was a 31-page pamphlet Las dos legitimidades de la potestad civil, a historiosophic treaty indirectly but clearly aimed against political regime of the Second Republic.

[94] In 1932 and invited by Eugenio Vegas Latapié, earlier impressed by his writings, Ruiz Muñoz penned 13 erudite articles[95] to the intellectual monarchist monthly Acción Española.

[96] Some of them were massive;[97] since Manuel Senante as the El Siglo Futuro director did not agree to him using the pen-name "Fabio", in Acción Española he was signing as "Javier Reina".

[99] During his second spell in Málaga Ruiz Muñoz was engaged in some sort of amateur archeological research, tracing signs of Christianity in the city left during the ancient and the Visigothic periods.

[105] Ruiz Muñoz inherited political outlook from his father and maternal uncle; both supported Integrism, the branch of Traditionalism which seceded from Carlism in the late 1880s.

[113] In 1930 the end of the dictatorship marked resurrection of parties, and at the time – though not holding any formal position and only thanks to his standing as the El Siglo Futuro pundit – he was considered one of “prohombres del integrismo”.

[119] Though rather absent in party events and rallies, at times he did take part, e.g. in 1935 he blessed the newly opened premises of Sección de Prensa of Secretariado Tradicionalista at the Madrid Calle del Clavel.

[122] In early September[123] he was detained in his rented apartment at calle Vallehermoso[124] by a CNT-FAI squad of CPIP and led to a nearby detention centre known as Checa de San Bernardo;[125] since then his fate is unclear.

[138] Among the radical Right he was thought an authority, be it in Renovación[139] or among the Carlists; Fal Conde suggested that Juan Marín del Campo writes his “biografía apologética”.

[145] In present-day historiography he is noted almost exclusively due to his publications in El Siglo Futuro,[146] counted among "uno de los colaboradores más importantes dentro del discurso desplegado por el diario tradicionalista",[147] among Traditionalist intellectuals[148] or "figuras intelectuales más destacadas del partido [carlista]",[149] though in a monographic work on Carlism and the Church he is almost ignored.

[154] Though profoundly anti-racist and commenting (with regard to Hitler) that “nobody but a lunatic could believe himself a member of a master race”,[155] he advanced the thesis of world Jewry conspiring to destroy Christian civilization, principally by means of freemasonry,[156] and saw the Second Republic as its sinister product.

[159] One scholar claims that Ruiz Muñoz instigated violence, since his theoretical reflections on illegitimate nature of the Second Republic “seemed to imply the right to take up arms against a regime”.