Five Spanish Franciscan friars killed along the Georgia coast more than four centuries ago were proclaimed Blessed during a ceremony in Savannah on Saturday, October 31, moving them a major step closer to sainthood. The men — Pedro de Corpa, Blas Rodríguez, Miguel de Añon, Antonio de Badajóz and Francisco de Veráscola — were missionaries sent to minister among the Guale people, the Indigenous inhabitants of coastal Georgia, before they were killed in 1597.
The beatification, held at a Savannah celebration, was confirmed by Vatican News, which reported that the friars were proclaimed Blessed during the ceremony. Cardinal Frank Leo, the Metropolitan Archbishop of Toronto, presided over the liturgy as papal legate, according to the same report. As detailed by The New York Times, the friars had traveled from Spain to missions along Georgia’s marshy coastline, where they learned the Guale language and formed relationships with the community while working to bring them to Christianity.
A Killing Rooted in a Dispute Over Marriage
The violence that claimed the friars’ lives unfolded between September 14 and September 17, 1597, while they were ministering along the Georgia coast, according to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The USCCB’s account traces the killings to a confrontation between Pedro de Corpa and Juanillo, heir to a Guale chiefdom: de Corpa had told Juanillo that as a baptized Christian, he could not take a second wife. The New York Times describes the friars’ deaths as part of a bloody rampage, and the Church has recognized them as martyrs killed in defense of their faith.
By 1595, Franciscans had already established missions along the Georgia coast and were evangelizing the Guale, according to EWTN News. That missionary presence set the stage for the violence that followed just two years later, and for a sainthood cause that would take centuries to reach this point.
Four Decades of Advocacy Reach Rome
The Diocese of Savannah opened the formal canonization cause for the martyrs in February 1984, with backing from the Order of Friars Minor, the National Catholic Reporter notes. Savannah Bishop Stephen D. Parkes said the effort to promote the friars’ sainthood cause had continued for more than 40 years, a timeline the USCCB included in its coverage of Pope Francis’s decree. Pope Francis signed that decree recognizing the friars’ martyrdom on January 27, 2025, clearing the formal path to Saturday’s beatification…