Pope Francis has formally recognised that five Franciscan missionaries ministering in what is now the US state of Georgia were killed for their faith. Source: CNS.
By signing the decree in the sainthood cause of the Georgia martyrs on Monday, the Pope cleared the way for their beatification, although a date for the ceremony was not announced immediately.
The Spanish Franciscans Pedro de Corpa, Blas Rodríguez de Cuacos, Miguel de Añón, Antonio de Badajoz and Francisco de Veráscola were killed between September 14-17, 1597, after Fr de Corpa told a young Indigenous man, Juanillo, who was heir to a Guale chiefdom, that as a baptised Christian he could not take a second wife.
Juanillo and a band of his men killed the priest with a stone hatchet at the Mission of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Tolomato, which is near modern-day Eulonia, Georgia.
They then went after the other Franciscan missionaries living and ministering along the Georgia coast.
Recounting the story of the Georgia martyrs on its website, the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints said Fr de Corpa not only “reprimanded” Juanillo for taking a second wife, but also “told him that he would oppose his succession as village chief if he persisted in his polygamous choice”.
Pope Francis signed other decrees on Monday as well, including recognising:
- The martyrdom of Swiss Marist Br François Benjamin May, also known as Brother Lycarion, who was shot in Barcelona, Spain, in 1909 during an anarchist rebellion.
- The heroic virtues of Mother Riccarda Beauchamp Hambrough, a longtime assistant to and later successor of St Mary Elizabeth Hesselblad, who refounded the Bridgettine Sisters; the two hid persecuted Jews, Communists and Poles from the Nazis in Rome during World War II.
- The heroic virtues of Italian Fr Quintino Sicuro, a diocesan priest and hermit, who lived from 1920 to 1968.
- The heroic virtues of Italian laywoman Luigia Sinapi (1916-1978) who experienced “numerous supernatural gifts” including “bilocation, discernment of spirits and, above all, mystical union with the Lord Jesus”.
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Pope clears way for beatification of Georgia martyrs (By Cindy Wooden, CNS)
