(OSV News) — Over 400 years ago, five Franciscan missionaries gave their lives for the teachings of the faith in what is now the state of Georgia.

As the Catholic Church prepared to beatify Friars Pedro de Corpa, Blas Rodríguez, Miguel de Añon, Antonio de Badajóz and Francisco de Veráscola on Oct. 31, pilgrims traveling to the Savannah Convention Center for the event talked about how these friars’ example touched their lives.

The friars were martyred in 1597 ministering to the Guale people of coastal Georgia after Father Pedro de Corpa stood by the Church’s teaching that marriage is between one man and one woman when the soon-to-be chief Juanillo wanted to take a second wife. Juanillo had Father Pedro killed and arranged the death of the other Franciscans serving in nearby missions.

The beatification is the first to take place in the state of Georgia and the Southeast United States and the sixth beatification to take place on U.S. soil.

Franciscan Father Roger Lopez, a provincial councilor of the Franciscan Friars Province of Our Lady of Guadalupe, volunteered to be a liaison to the Diocese of Savannah when the Franciscans received news that the beatification was moving forward.

“I volunteered not knowing what I was going to get myself into,” he said, but he went to Savannah and learned about the martyrs’ ministry to the Guale people, traveled to St. Catherines Island where one of their missions was discovered and was even able to celebrate Mass at the same place that the martyrs were killed.  

“All of this has really helped me to understand who my brothers are,” he told OSV News. “It’s been a wonderful journey of trying to understand their life, the historical pieces that were surrounding it, the events leading up to the martyrdom.”

Georgia Martyrs faced challenge of presenting the Gospel

Unlike the California missions in the mid to late 1700s where missionaries served alongside a military presence that could create challenges, the Georgia martyrs served without one. “Their understanding of mission must have been very different in the sense of they had to incorporate very much with the people living with them, working with them,” he said.  

He thought the friars faced a “familiar challenge,” present in every age, a tension between the values of the Gospel and the values of the secular world that is part of the human condition.  

The Guale chief Juanillo, he said, faced that tension all those years ago when “he realizes he’s the heir apparent to the chiefdom and he realizes following the custom of the Guale people, taking on another wife, helps to bring prestige, helps to bring influence. And he completely knows, because he’s warned by the friars, by Father Pedro, that this is contrary to what Christ is inviting us into, and he disregards that.”  

Father Lopez thought Juanillo’s choice to kill the friars showed that there was “strong influence of the friars with the people because he knows that if he undermines the friars and the teachings in this way, he’s going to lose credibility, he’ll lose influence.”

“September 14th, 1597, he assembles the war party, he kills Pedro,” he said, “He moves over one by one as he starts to martyr. He realizes that the Church, the Gospel has become an infestation, so let’s remove it.”

Franciscans present witness in living, and dying, for Christ

He referenced “the paradox” of Matthew’s Gospel where Christ says that “whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it.”

Franciscans celebrate the feast of the Stigmata of St. Francis of Assisi on Sept. 17 every year, marking when St. Francis received the wounds of Christ in the stigmata and that passage of St. Matthew’s Gospel is read.

“The friars would have heard, they would have read it,” he said as Sept 17th was the day Friars Miguel and Antonio were killed on St. Catherines Island. They finished the Mass, heard that Gospel and “only a short time after” they “put that very imitation of Jesus Christ into action.”

“Here are these friars who hear Scripture and they realize, ‘I have to be ready.’ And they are,” he said. “They could have ran, they could have defended themselves, but they were able to run out and meet the Lord when he did come.” 

Example of fervor for the Gospel

Father Lopez is “excited for the first time after their beatification” when he “will be able to use their name in the Mass during the Eucharistic prayer and to call upon them in that way through that Eucharist,” asking “these brothers to pray for me so that I will be ready at all times when Christ may come.” 

Father Lopez was traveling from Massachusetts to attend the beatification, and 20 to 30 of his fellow friars will also be in attendance. “There are friars who are coming from Spain from the original province that these martyrs are coming from,” he noted, adding that the 12th generation great-nephew of the martyr Francisco will be in attendance all the way from Spain.

He said he hopes Catholics are inspired by the beatification and see that “fervor for the Gospel is not something just for the past, it’s today.”

Alfonso Dagr, a parishioner at the Nativity of Our Lady Catholic Church in Darien, Georgia, learned about the Georgia martyrs soon after he moved three years ago and began attending Mass at the parish. His first Mass there opened with a prayer mentioning the martyrs and he learned their story.

“It really is amazing that they were willing to give their lives for the faith,” he said. “They were here sharing the faith and they didn’t give up on the faith no matter what happened to them.” 

Parish near where friars lost their lives a pilgrimage site

The parish is a recommended pilgrimage site for those attending the beatification as it is located in the area where the Georgia martyrs served the Guale and features a monument to the “Five Friars of Georgia” by artist Timothy Schmalz.

Dagr said it was “mind-blowing” to discover that the friars lost their lives right near where he lived and made him feel a “deeper connection” to them.

He called the beatification a “once in a lifetime event” for Georgia, for the diocese and for the local parish. He will be attending with his family and a friend he encouraged to join them for it and is excited to have “this public display of faith” with the event.

Artist’s depiction of Georgia Martyrs part of art exhibition at beatification

Clorinda Galdos Bell, a Peruvian-born artist living in the Diocese of Knoxville, Tennessee, first heard of the Georgia martyrs when Father Charles Byrd commissioned her to do a painting of them for his parish at the time, Our Lady of the Mountains in Jasper, Georgia.

“It was a challenge for me because I didn’t have actually faces to work from,” she said, but Father Byrd gave her details about the friars and she read about their lives.  

Father Pedro de Corpa is depicted holding a cross, as his martyrdom took place first on Sept. 14, the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. Father Blas Rodríguez is tied with a rope as he was tied up before he was killed. Father Miguel de Añon holds a local palmetto, alluding to the palm as a symbol of martyrdom. Brother Antonio de Badajoz holds a rosary, as he and Father Miguel were able to celebrate Mass and pray the rosary as they awaited death. Finally, Father Francisco de Veráscola holds a hat and paddle as he was killed rowing back to the mission from St. Augustine, Florida, and didn’t have time to remove his hat. 

Bell said her painting style — the Peruvian Cuzco style — is “between icon and painting” where those depicted “have real faces” but you see through the details “the message God wants to teach people.”

She said that through the example of the Georgia martyrs “God is trying to teach us how important the family is” and “how important loyalty to each other is.”  

“I’m excited that those friars are being recognized for their strong faith,” she said of the upcoming beatification, “what inspired me most about these servants of God is how strong their faith was in giving their lives defending the sacrament of marriage.” 

She added that it was “exciting to see the roots of the Catholic Church in the South being recognized.”  

Bell was traveling to the event with her husband, Aaron, and her work will be a part of the art exhibition during the event at the Savannah Convention Center. Her artwork can be found at clorysgallery.com.

The Diocese of Savannah expected over 8,000 people to be in attendance for the beatification and expanded the event to a larger venue than originally planned. 

Lauretta Brown is culture editor for OSV News. Follow her on X @LaurettaBrown6.