Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) - They refused to approve the practice of polygamy among baptized Native Americans. For this they became martyrs. Four centuries after the events of 1597 in the coastal villages of Georgia, Pope Francis has authorized the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints to promulgate the Decree regarding the recognition of the martyrdom of the Servants of God Pedro da Corpa, Blas Rodríguez de Cuacos, Miguel de Añón, Antonio de Badajoz and Francisco de Veráscola.
They were five religious of the Order of Friars Minor who were killed in the territory of the current diocese of Savannha in the United States of America "out of hatred of the faith". All of them were Spanish and had set out as missionaries to spread the Gospel among the Guale people who lived on the coast of Georgia. In their villages polygamy was practiced.
Friar Pedro de Corpa, who set out for the New Continent in 1587, arrived in the village of Tolomato (near present-day Darien) and, together with his confreres, decided to baptize an adult Guale only if he had entered into a monogamous marriage.
Everything seemed to be going well but, as can be read on the official website of the Ordo Fratrum Minorum, which has published a detailed biography of the five missionaries after the announcement of the recognition of martyrdom, when a young local warrior named Juanillo, who had been baptized and already married, decided to take a second wife. The warrior, a nephew of the tribal chief, was to take charge of the village. In the end, Juanillo decided to ignore the warnings of Friar Pedro da Corpa regarding his baptismal obligation, left the mission and joined forces with other natives of the interior region against the Franciscan. In the first days of September 1597, the warriors attacked Friar Pedro in his hut, killing him with an axe.
The hatred of the faith, as laid down in the decree published today, soon turned against the other four Friars Minor who lived in the other villages. The second to die was Friar Blas Rodríguez de Cuacos. At the time of the events, he was working in the village of Tupiquí, near what is now Eulonia. When he found himself facing the group of armed natives, knowing that his death was imminent, he asked for permission to celebrate his last Mass. This was granted, and at the end of the service he too was killed with an axe blow and his body was left in the forest to be eaten by the animals.
Friar Miguel de Añón was a missionary on the island of Santa Catalina, along with lay brother Antonio de Badajoz. The chief warned the latter of the uprising that was spreading against the friars, but he did not flee, preferring to stay in the village with Friar Miguel. Both endured their martyrdom, which was preceded by much torture, in faith. Their bodies were buried in the village chapel. The last of the five Franciscans to be martyred was Friar Francisco de Veráscola. He was entrusted with the new mission on the island of Asao, now San Simón, opposite the present city of Brunswick, Georgia. His imposing stature and physical strength earned him the nickname "the Cantabrian giant". This quality made him popular with the Guale youth, with whom he competed in wrestling and ball games. At the time of the death of his companions, he was not present: he had travelled by canoe to San Agustín to collect material for the chapel. When he arrived in Asao, he was immediately attacked by insurgents who killed him with an axe blow.
Centuries later, in the diocese of Savannah, just over forty years ago, in 1981, the process for the beatification and canonization of these martyrs began, initiated by the American bishops. Now the decree recognizing the martyrdom of the five religious has been published. (F.B.) (Agenzia Fides, 27/1/2025)
