Marriage is worth dying for: Beatification of 5 Spaniards martyred in 1597 in Florida

On October 31, Cardinal Leo beatified in Savannah, Georgia, USA, five Spanish Franciscans who died in a rebellion in September 1597 for defending the dignity of women and marriage. 

From now on, September 22nd can be celebrated as the feast day of these five missionaries. On the occasion of the first beatification ever held in the American South, papal legate Frank Leo affirmed that Blessed Pedro de Corpa and his companions defended the dignity of the human person.  

Frank Leo, a 55-year-old Montreal native and now Archbishop of Toronto, traveled to the state of Georgia, which has 11.5 million inhabitants, 1.3 million Catholics (8%), and 400 priests spread across two dioceses. He concelebrated Mass with 32 bishops and more than 200 priests.

In his homily, he pointed out that the five blessed remind us all of the call to holiness, martyrs or not. He added that the commitment of these missionaries to evangelize through dialogue and charity challenges us today. 

“Polarization is not of God,” he said, in a country deeply divided politically, on the 250th anniversary of its founding. But in a country where the ceremony at the Savannah Convention Center demonstrated his universality and that of the Church: 12,000 people (many more wanted to attend, and thousands upon thousands watched the beatification via livestream) of diverse races in a polyphonic unity (with a chamber orchestra and an 18-voice choir accompanying). 

Switching between Spanish and English, the papal legate concluded: “There are things worth living and dying for today.” An image of Our Lady of Guadalupe was displayed to the left of the altar, and one depicting the Betrothal of Mary and Joseph to the right. This event took place during a Guadalupe jubilee (the 50th anniversary of the dedication of the new Basilica of Guadalupe) and a Franciscan jubilee (the 800th anniversary of the death of Saint Francis of Assisi). Our Franciscans set a fine example of the inculturation of the Gospel, pacifism, and Christian feminism.

Pope Leo XIV mentioned the beatification in his Angelus address on the Solemnity of All Saints in Rome. The multitude of saints “embraces the most varied origins, cultures, and life situations: holiness is not a privilege for a few, but a universal vocation that challenges each of us wherever we live. This is the hopeful message of today’s feast… Yesterday, in Savannah, Georgia… Pedro de Corpa and four companions, religious of the Order of Friars Minor, were beatified. They were murdered out of hatred for the faith in 1597. Originally from Spain, they responded generously to the Lord’s call to evangelize the peoples of the Americas, even giving their lives. Let us invoke the intercession of these martyrs for all missionaries of the Gospel.”

Evangelizing with respect for culture

There have been Catholics in Florida since the city of St. Augustine was founded in 1565 (the first Mass was celebrated there on September 8, 1565). Two centuries later, in 1763, the Franciscans left because the English obtained the territory, which reverted to Spain in 1783; however, Spain ceded that territory to the United States in 1821. (Meanwhile, French Catholic missionaries, Franciscan Recollect friars, arrived in Quebec in the New France, (only in 1615.)

In an interview days earlier with Our Sunday Visitor, The Cardinal of Toronto said that to win souls for Christ, we must imitate Blessed Pedro de Corpa and his companions today, not with aggressive behavior, but by living with our neighbors in love, as they did with the Guale indigenous people of the Atlantic coast. The papal legate added that in digital culture, in youth subcultures, and in immigrant cultures, what is beautiful, good, and true must be rescued because it reflects God. But he affirmed that not everything in cultures is good, beautiful, and true—for example, polygamy. 

Five Franciscans, one same fidelity

The first missionary to die was Blessed Pedro de Corpa. Four other missionaries were killed by non-Christian indigenous people recruited by the Guale prince Juanillo, a Christian who had been asked not to take a second wife. These missionaries were Blessed Blas Rodríguez, Miguel de Añón, Antonio Badajoz, and Francisco de Veráscola. These Franciscans had begun evangelizing the Guale ten years earlier.

On October 28 in Toronto, the papal legate told me that he was traveling to Georgia from October 29 to November 3 with his master of ceremonies, Father Arthur Lee, invited to participate in many events, including a Mass with half a dozen bishops on Saint Catherine Island. It was there, on the Feast of the Stigmata of St. Francis (September 17, 1597), that Blessed Anthony and Michael were martyred. Among the pilgrims present were collateral descendants of the Basque priest. Blessed Francis of Versailles. Twelve generations on the collateral side separate these Spaniards from their illustrious relative. On that island, the empty tombs where Blessed Miguel and Antonio were buried were found. But there are no remains of them—no relics of any of the five are known, although the search continues. At the beatification ceremony, after the legate pronounced the formula of beatification signed by Leo XIV on September 30, 2026, and a bishop and a priest read it in English and Spanish, a beautiful cloth depicting the five martyrs was unveiled, but no relic could be venerated.

During the celebration, the Bishop of Savannah, Stephen Parkes, emotionally thanked the Pope for the beatification. He stated that they had been working toward this for four decades and that it would bear much fruit in evangelization.

They are men with modern personalities; the passage of 429 years hasn't aged them, they seem to have stepped right out of our mobile phone screens. Numerous texts attest to this. 

Luis de Oré

The Franciscan Luis de Oré, a Peruvian Creole who visited Florida twice, wrote around 1619 The Florida Martyrs. This book reveals many details about our blessed figures. And we also know about them through the epic poem. Florida, by Alonso de Escobedo, an Andalusian friar and contemporary of the Beatus manuscripts. Written in the early 1600s, the work consists of 37 cantos. The complete text was published in 2015 by the North American Academy of the Spanish Language (ANLE). Escobedo sings:

The Florida coast is dangerous. 

surrounded by mountains and swamps. 

The people who occupy it are belligerent, 

rabid enemy of Christians, 

so that if anyone dares to go out 

through the mountains without fear of pagans, 

If he comes back alive, bring back his chest. 

full of arrows, fed up with his spite.

He himself writes at the beginning of CANTO 12: (149.) This canto contains the martyrdom of four religious of the order of my Father Saint Francis, who were taken in Florida. The … Father Veráscola, from Biscay, and Father Añón, from Aragon, and Father Corpa and Father Fray Antonio, from Castile. For some unknown reason, he doesn't mention Blessed Blas Rodríguez. It's possible Escobedo left Florida before 1597 and would have known those four men, but not Blas.

Blessed Peter of Corpa

He was born in Villabilla, Alcalá, around 1560. He arrived in Florida in 1587. He died in Tolomato on September 14, 1597. This town, which no longer exists, was like the capital of the Guale people, and Friar Pedro acted as the superior of the other five Franciscans in the area (one survived). He spoke Guale fluently and was very successful in converting the indigenous people. Escobedo recounts that this blessed man was a model of the virtues of poverty, chastity, and obedience, and an example of prayer and penance for the West Indians, whom he was trying to convert. Our poet adds:

(158.) He watered the ground with his precious blood 

our divine Franciscan Corpus; 

Christ has already given him his soul, God of heaven, 

who gave his life for humankind, 

which Lord boarded on the first flight 

with his divine, frank and holy hand 

the soul of this friar from Castile, 

born in the town of Villalvilla. (sic)

In 1597 the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross fell on a Sunday, and Blessed Peter was preparing to say Mass when he was beaten to death with clubs in his own hut.

Blessed Blas Rodriguez 

He was born in the 1550s in Cuacos de Yuste, Cáceres. In the 1580s he became a Franciscan and was ordained. Sent to the New World in 1590, he resided in the town of Tupiquí, near Tolomato. Those who killed Blessed Pedro went after Blessed Blas, who succumbed on September 16, 1597. They allowed him to say a Requiem Mass for Blessed Pedro and distribute his possessions to his flock before martyring him. In his homily, he told his “children” that for him, death was not difficult; that even if they had not caused it, the death of his body was inevitable. But what grieved him was that the devil had persuaded them to offend their God and Creator in this way, and that they had not accepted the teachings of the path to eternal life and happiness (see Luis de Oré)., The martyrs of Florida). 

Blessed Miguel de Añón and Antonio de Badajoz

Possibly the oldest of our Blesseds and highly respected, born in Añón de Moncayo in the 1540s, Blessed Miguel entered the order around 1570. He traveled to Puerto Rico and then to Florida in 1595 with Blessed Francisco. He was sent to Santa Catalina Island. He was killed on September 17, 1597, by a non-Christian with a tomahawk.tomahawkOré describes it like this: Very noble by blood, of known lineage, of very great spirit and of very good grace and voice, loved and cherished by all who dealt with him; he had the right to be with everyone, and thus he was lord of the wills of all, both religious and lay people… much loved by the Indians.

Friar Antonio is the only one of the beatified friars not ordained a priest, and he is known for his simplicity. A fluent speaker of the Guale language, he interprets for Father Miguel. He dies with him on the island, on the feast of the Stigmata of St. Francis; the Gospel reading for that feast contains the phrase from Matthew 16:25: “Whoever loses their life for me will find it.” 

The rebels had demanded that the island's chief kill the two missionaries. But the chief of Santa Catalina, instead of complying, warned Friar Antonio that they must flee, promising them canoes and protection. Antonio, however, refused to believe the natives could kill them. And he said nothing to Friar Miguel! The chief insisted again, to no avail. A short time later, the rebels arrived. 

They were granted four hours, time for the priest to celebrate Mass and for the two to prepare to die in prayer. Upon attacking the two friars, they first killed the lay brother, who had spent ten years in Florida. Then, the violent mob seemed to lose heart, for they hesitated to attack the venerable priest. However, an unbaptized Indian stepped forward and began to strike him with a war axe, leaving him unconscious. Although a group of the faithful rushed to his defense, another pagan Indian dealt him the final blow. A few days later, this man repented and hanged himself, like Judas, from a tree with the string of his own bow. In the words of the poet Escobedo:

^{(159.) Friar Antonio, as I say elsewhere,} 

^{He was of clear Castilian lineage,} 

^{who follows Christ's banner} 

^{He entered the holy Franciscan order.} 

^{He fought against vices like the god Mars} 

^{from his early, green youth,} 

^{with a desire to give one's soul to God} 

^{to win the martyr's laurel and palm.} 

Blessed Francis of Versailles 

^{(138) Veráscola, famous Biscayan,} 

^{native of Gordejuela,} 

^{because he was a most learned and kind man} 

^{Taking his position is revealed.} 

^{He walked almost constantly,} 

^{And Jesus, crowned, reveals to him,} 

^{He gives his blood with a joyful gesture,} 

^{For he gave his own life on the cross.} 

^{(141) …already Veráscola, noted friar,} 

^{who accompanies the enlightened man} 

^{so that he always walks on the right side} 

^{because he was feared for his courage,} 

^{Well, his strength alone was enough.} 

^{to surrender that of the fiercest giant.} 

Nicknamed “the giant of Cantabria,” this Basque man was tall and strong, and was admired by the Guale Indians. He participated in sporting events with indigenous youths, including a sport similar to football. 

^{...Only this Biscayan friend of ours,} 

^{He won the victory over many Indians,} 

^{fighting them chest to chest,} 

^{and throwing the bar a long way.}

He was a self-mortified and sacrificial religious man. He had been assigned the village of Asao, further south than the other friars' locations. Of the five blessed men, he was the only one tasked with starting a new mission. Ordained in 1590, he arrived in Florida in 1595, two years before his death. He was the last of our five to die, and the youngest. He had gone to the colony of St. Augustine to collect provisions; and upon disembarking from his canoe on the shore, he was killed with an axe. He thought they were coming to greet him. He didn't even have time to remove his hat. Having been outside, he was unaware of the rebellion. He was carrying wine and hosts for the Eucharist, and building materials for the new church. Oré states that two Indians seized him and held him tightly while others arrived and struck him with axes. They buried him, but his grave was never found.

For half a century, a festival has been held in his hometown to commemorate him. The parish church of San Juan de Molinar, where he was baptized on the day of his birth (as Francisco de Veráscola Sáez de Castañiza, February 13, 1564), still stands. 

It is worth noting that the Guale people asked the Franciscans to return after the rebellion. Other missionaries also moved there again. For about 80 more years, their evangelizing and civic work continued, until the English from the southern colonies forced them—Hispanics, mestizos, and indigenous people—to relocate south to St. Augustine.