Franciscan Martyrdom

As we remember the death of John the Baptist by beheading, I am reposting about some Franciscan martyrs who are celebrated in January.

OFM protomartyrs: St. Berard and Companions d.1220

January 16

            In 1219 it was ten years after the first Rule for the Order had been put into place. With the blessing of St. Francis, Berard, who spoke Arabic, left Italy with five companions: Peter, Adjute, Accurs, Odo and Vitalis to preach in Morocco. They specifically wanted to convert Muslims. While en route in Spain, Vitalis became sick and encouraged the other friars to continue in their mission without him.

            They preached in Seville, then in Muslim hands, but made no converts. They went on to Morocco where they preached openly in the marketplace. They refused to leave the country when the friars were apprehended. The sultan ordered them executed. After enduring severe beatings and declining to renounce their faith in Jesus Christ, the martyrs were beheaded at Marrakesh by the sultan himself on January 16, 1220.

            These were the first Franciscan martyrs. When Francis heard of their deaths, he exclaimed, “Now I can truly say that I have five Friars Minor!” Their relics were brought to Portugal, where they prompted a young Augustinian canon named Anthony to join the Franciscans and set off for Morocco the next year.

In the Rule of 1223, Chapter 12, Francis wrote: “If any of the friars is inspired by God to go among the Saracens or other unbelievers, he must ask permission from his provincial minister. The ministers, for their part, are to give permission only to those whom they see fit to be sent.” Preaching the gospel is often dangerous work. Leaving one’s homeland and adjusting to new cultures, governments, and languages is difficult enough; but martyrdom sometimes caps all the other sacrifices. The death of Berard and his companions sparked a missionary vocation in Saint Anthony of Padua and many others.

These five martyrs were canonized in 1481. There have been many, many Franciscans who have responded to Francis’ challenge. Proclaiming the gospel can be fatal, but that has not stopped Franciscan men and women who even today risk their lives in many countries throughout the world.

Prayer

Lord God,

you consecrated the infancy of the Franciscan Order

by the glorious martyrdom of Berard and his four companions;

grant that as they died heroically for you

so we may grow in persevering faith.

We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,

who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,

God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Protomartyr of the USA: Juan de Padilla (1492-1542)

January 21

Juan didn’t know where preaching the gospel of Jesus would lead him, but he trusted God to give him the strength to match a missionary vocation. Juan’s vocation led to his martyrdom in Kansas, part of the New World “discovered” by Columbus the year he was born. His martyrdom happened about 100 years before that of the “North American Martyrs” in New York and Canada. 

            Juan came from southern Spain where he also became a Franciscan, a member of the Andalusian province. In 1526 he left for New Spain (Mexico), where he worked as a missionary in the modern states of Hidalgo and Jalisco. In 1540 he accompanied Coronado’s expedition to what would become the state of New Mexico in the USA. Friar Juan along with Fr. Juan de la Cruz, Brother Luis de Ubeda or Escalona, remained to work among the natives after the other explorers returned to Mexico. The next year De Padilla continued to journey north-east to Kansas; there he met the Ouichita or Wichita natives in a village known as Quivera.

            Juan was killed by several Wichita Indians as he made his way to the Kaws, traditional enemies of the Wichita. The exact locality of his martyrdom is uncertain. He was the first of at least 78 Franciscans martyred in the United States of America.

Father Don Miller, OFM, writes that “Juan de Padilla was motivated more by a desire to spread the Gospel than by fear for his own life. He reminds us that we do not have much choice about how we will die; however, we have a lot of choice about how we shall live.”

We are sometimes uncomfortable when people mention martyrs for the faith. How could people do that? Do they have mental health issues? Juan de Padilla was motivated more by a desire to spread the gospel than by fear for his own life. He reminds us that we do not have very much choice about how we will die; however, we have a lot of choice about how we shall live.

Posted on August 29th: The Passion of Saint John the Baptist (Mission San Juan Bautista)

August 27 The Seven Joys of Mary-The Franciscan Crown

 

One unique devotion of the Franciscans is a seven-decade rosary known as the Franciscan Crown. While the traditional rosary consists of 5 decades that meditate on 15 mysteries (or 20 if you pray the Luminous mysteries), the 7-decade Franciscan “Rosary” is a chaplet consisting of seven decades, with each decade describing a particular joy from the life of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

The story of the Rosary of the Seven Joys of the Blessed Virgin dates back to the early 15th century. A pious young man named James had been accustomed to adorning a beautiful statue of Mary with a crown of flowers, which he had picked and woven himself. He later entered the Franciscan Order, but either because of a lack of time or permission, he was no longer able to continue this devotion. Distraught because of this, he decided to abandon the religious life and return to the world.

Our Lady then appeared to him in 1422 and convinced him not to leave the Order. She told him that he should not be downcast because he was no longer permitted to adorn her statue, for she would teach him a way to give her honor which was much more pleasing and meritorious. Instead of a crown of flowers which quickly wither, he was to weave a crown of prayers, and these prayers could be offered at any moment. She then taught him the Rosary of the Seven Joys, adding that these prayers would not only form a more acceptable crown, but they would also yield innumerable graces for himself and others.

Among the Friars Minor, the promotion of this devotion is attributed to St. Bonaventure, BL. Cherubin of Spoleto, St. John Capistrano, and St. Bernadine of Siena, to mention a few. St. Bernadine is said to have had a vision of the Virgin Mary when he was meditating on the seven joys of Mary. It is especially appropriate to pray the Franciscan Crown in community every Saturday. 

The Seven Joys are:

1) The Annunciation, in which the Immaculate Virgin Mary conceives of Jesus by the Holy Spirit

2) The Visitation with Elizabeth

3) The Birth of Our Lord Jesus Christ into the World

4) The Adoration of the Magi

5) The Finding of the Child Jesus in the Temple

6) The Appearance of Christ to His Mother Mary after the Resurrection

7) The Assumption and Coronation of the Blessed Virgin Mary as Queen of Heaven and Earth

It would seem that Our Lady had more than seven joys in her life, with differing lists that can be found. Note the uniqueness of the Adoration of the Magi and the legendary Appearance of Christ to His Mother Mary after the Resurrection. Another approach is to combine the Nativity with the Adoration of the Magi (#3) in order to make room for (#4) Presentation & Purification in the Temple (as a joyful event rather than a sorrow). 

An illustration by Lucas Cranach the Elder from 1505-20 is very similar but switches out the Visitation in favor of the Coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost:

1. Annunciation

2. Birth of Jesus

3. Visit from the Magi

4. Finding in the Temple

5. Resurrection appearance to his mother Mary

6. Pentecost Descent of the Holy Spirit

7. Coronation in Heaven 

Despite this abundance of joyfulness, devotion to the Mother of Sorrows and her seven sorrowful events would seem to be more popular nowadays. BTW: The official Servite chaplet of seven sorrows is technically seven groups of seven Hail Mary’s each, with no Pater Nosters included. Because of the same basis of seven, the Franciscan Crown can be used to pray the Seven Sorrows of the Blessed Virgin Mary during Lent.

The Seven Sorrows are:  

1.    The prophecy of Simeon

2.    The flight to Egypt

3.    The loss of the Child Jesus for three days

4.    Mary meets Jesus carrying the cross

5.    The Crucifixion of Jesus

6.    The body of Jesus is taken down from the cross and placed in his mother’s arms.

7.    The body of Jesus is placed in the tomb

How to Pray the Crown Rosary

The Franciscan Crown Rosary begins quite simply by stating the first joy and then praying one Our Father and ten Hail Mary’s while meditating upon it. This same procedure is then followed for the other six joys. Even though it is common practice nowadays to add the Glory Be at the end of each decade, and even the Fatima Prayer, these are not required. It is customary to finish by adding two Hail Mary’s in honor of the 72 years that Our Lady is said to have lived on earth. Conclude with one Our Father and one Hail Mary for the intentions of the Pope, proper to an indulgence.

Finding the Franciscan Crown where you might least expect it!

For all the uproar over the presence of a cross on the seal of the County of Los Angeles, and the numerous revisions it went through, the seal of the City of Los Angeles contains religious imagery as well. It contains the Franciscan Crown in the inner set of beads: Seven decades with seven larger beads to indicate the mysteries. A subtle acknowledgment of the Franciscan missionaries and the Catholic roots of the “City of the Angels”!!!

August 25 St. Louis IX-CA Mission

St. Louis, King of France/San Luis Rey (1214-1270)

Patron of the Secular Franciscans or the Third Order

August 25

            Louis’s mother was “Blessed” Blanche of Castile, who is honored on August 23^rd. Blanche served as his regent for several years after he was crowned king of France at the age of twelve. He received instruction in the faith from both his saintly mother and from Franciscan friars, eventually joining the Third Order. Blanche reportedly told her son, “I would rather see you dead at my feet than stained with mortal sin!”

            As a monarch, Louis generously built churches, the most famous being the Sainte-Chapelle, which was erected as a shrine for the crown of thorns and a fragment of the True Cross, precious relics of the Passion of Christ. He was also fond of the Trinitarian Order and chose from among them to serve as his personal chaplains and spiritual directors. He also founded hospitals, promoted education, and took care to feed the poor and hungry.

            In the 1250’s there was a dispute within the University of Paris concerning the Dominicans and Franciscans. Faculty resented the independent but very popular schools of the mendicants. Louis openly supported the friars, led by the eminent Thomas Aquinas and Bonaventure.

             Louis headed a crusade to the Holy Land but was taken prisoner in Egypt in 1250. He was pressured to deny his faith but did not relent. This was part of the Seventh Crusade, formally inaugurated by Pope Innocent IV. After his release, Louis spent almost four years in the Kingdom of Jerusalem before returning to France in 1254.

            The king’s greatest achievement was to rule in the light of the Gospel of Jesus. He maintained that God’s law was always superior to any of his own human laws. He placed a high value on justice. Perhaps most emblematic of Louis's commitment to justice was his personal involvement in judicial proceedings. According to many local legends and contemporary accounts, the king frequently sat under a great oak tree in the forest of Vincennes near Paris, where he would personally hear cases and render judgments.

            One Franciscan source notes that “we rarely associate kings with the spirit of St. Francis of Assisi, but Louis IX shows us that the Poverello’s ideals can work there also, [among royalty].”  Louis was a good diplomat and maintained excellent relations with other Christian monarchs of his day. Many times he was called upon to mediate peace between opposing European rulers.

Louis was also a father; he and Queen Margaret had eleven children. He was succeeded by their son Philip. He died in North Africa while on his second crusade (1267-70) and was canonized fairly quickly in 1297. Many now call upon his patronage and intercession. 

(click to enlarge image to read)

August 22 The Queenship of Mary

 August 22: Celebrating the Coronation of the Blessed Virgin Mary as Queen of Heaven & Earth!

August is very much a “Marian” month, like that of May, with feastdays of Our Lady scattered throughout. The 22nd is one of those days celebrating Mary’s heavenly presence seven days after the Assumption on the 15th.  Add in: August 5^th Saint Mary Major Basilica & Our Lady of the Snows; Our Lady of Knock, Ireland on the 21^st; Our Lady of the Goldenheart of Beauraing, Belgium on 8/22; and Our Lady of Czestochowa, the Black Madonna of Poland on August 26^th, along with the two Franciscan celebrations of Our Lady of the Angels of the Little Portion (Portiuncula) on 8/2 and The Seven Joys of Mary (Franciscan Crown) on August 27^th. You see why it is a very significant “Marian” month. The traditional devotion of the month is to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

Two of the California Missions are named after the Blessed Virgin Mary: La Soledad/Our Mother of Sorrows and La Purisima/the Immaculate Conception, which is a theological concept very much championed and promoted by Franciscan theologians. And so I include within this blog an essay about Padre Serra and his Marian devotion from the California Missions Pictorial booklet. (Just click on the image to enlarge it for reading.) Mary’s presence can be found at each of the CA missions, whether as Mother & Child Madonna or under the titles of Our Lady of Refuge or Our Lady of Loreto or Our Lady of Guadalupe (the three most popular).

Marian devotion of the Franciscan missionaries echoes that of St. Francis of Assisi, as is evidenced by the Mother Church of the Orders being Our Lady of the Angels of the Little Portion. In his Second Life of St. Francis, 198, Thomas of Celano describes the love of St. Francis for the Mother of Jesus as “inexpressible,” for “it was she who made the Lord of majesty our brother.” Francis composed this “Salutation to Our Lady:”

Hail, O Lady, holy Queen.
Mary, holy Mother of God:
You are the virgin made church
and the one chosen by the most holy Father in heaven.
God has consecrated you with the most holy beloved Son
and with the Holy Spirit the Paraclete. 

In you there was and is all the fullness of grace and every good.

Hail, His Palace!

Hail, His Tabernacle!

Hail, His Home!

Hail, His Robe!

Hail, His Handmaid!

Hail, His Mother!

And hail all you holy virtues

            which through the grace and light of the Holy Spirit

            are poured into the hearts of the faithful

            so that from their faithless state

            you may make them [and us] faithful to God.

(click on the image to enlarge for reading)

August 19 St. Louis of Toulouse/San Luis Obispo-CA Mission

St. Louis of Toulouse/San Luis Obispo (1274-1297)

August 19

            Louis’s parents were royalty: Charles II of Naples & Sicily and Mary, daughter of the king of Hungary. Louis was related as a cousin to the King of France, Louis IX (Saint on August 25) on his father’s side. On his mother’s side, he was related to Elizabeth of Hungary (Saint on November 17)!

            As a young child Louis showed an attachment to prayer and especially to the corporal works of mercy. He used to take castle food from the royal table to feed the poor. When he was fourteen, Louis and two of his brothers were taken as hostages by the king of Aragon. At the Aragon court, Louis was taught by Franciscan friars and thus made tremendous progress both in his studies and in the spiritual life. Like St. Francis of Assisi he developed a special affinity for those suffering from leprosy.

            While he was still a hostage, Louis decided to become a priest. He left the court of the king of Aragon when he turned 20 and renounced his royal title in favor of his brother Robert. He was then ordained the next year. Very shortly after, he was appointed Bishop of Toulouse, but was also able to become a Franciscan friar. Franciscan spirit pervaded Louis. A favorite prayer or saying of Louis was: “Jesus Christ is all my riches; he alone is sufficient for me.” 

            As a bishop he wore the Franciscan habit and sometimes begged. Louis’s service as bishop to the diocese of Toulouse was productive and blessed. In no time he was considered a living saint. Louis set aside a large percentage of his episcopal income to feed the poor and maintain churches.  He died at age 23! Louis was canonized in 1317 by Pope John XXII, one of his former teachers.

From a contemporary biography: “All the faithful were edified by the fervor of his devout celebration of Mass, the efficacy of his deep humility, his tender compassion, his upright life, the harmonious congruity in all his actions, words and bearing. Who without wonderment could look upon a most charming young man, the son of a mighty king, outstanding for his generosity, raised to such dignity, renowned for his influence, preeminent for humility, living a life of such mortification, endowed with such wisdom, clothed in so poor a habit yet renowned for the charm of his discourse and a shining example of upright life?!” 

August 18 Venerable Mother Bentovoglio -USA!

 

Venerable Mother Mary Maddalena Bentivoglio, OSC: in the USA! (1834-1905)

August 18

"When the United States of America was celebrating the 100^th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, the Poor Clares had not yet made a foundation in this country. Maddalena Bentivoglio was, however, about to take care of that," wrote one Franciscan writer. 

           This saint-in-the-making, originally named "Anna Maria," was the twelfth child of Dominic and Angela Sandri Bentivoglio. She was nicknamed Annetta and was not a "saintly" child! At her first school, she was well known to the disciplinarian. 

            Her father was an official in the Papal States. A revolution in 1848 drove Pope Pius IX and the Bentivoglio family into a two-year exile. In 1865, as the Civil War in the United States was coming to an end, Annetta joined the Poor Clares at San Lorenzo, a community to which her sister Costanza already belonged. Annetta took the religious name Mary Maddalena of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. 

            In 1874 a Third Order sister from Minnesota in the USA came to Italy to seek candidates for a new community she was establishing in that state. The Pope at that time, Pius the Ninth (Pio Nono), gave permission to Maddalena and Costanza to establish a house of Poor Clares in Minnesota.  Once they arrived in New York, however, the Franciscan priest chosen as their spiritual director decided not to continue on to Minnesota. The sisters had to write to the Franciscan Minister General for guidance. He advised finding any bishop in the USA willing to host a Poor Clare monastery; if that failed, they should return to Italy.

           The sisters made unsuccessful attempts to establish monasteries in New York,  Philadelphia, and New Orleans. In August 1877, Maddalena and her companions (with two new recruits from New Orleans) arrived in Cleveland, Ohio, where they did establish a monastery. Other monasteries were established in 1880 in Omaha, Nebraska, with foundations to follow in New Orleans in 1885 and Evansville, Indiana in 1897. This helped put to rest any doubt as to whether the contemplative life could attract religious vocations in America. Mother Maddalena died in Evansville on August 18, 1905. Her cause is in process in Rome.

For more information about Mother Bentivoglio and her gift of needlework, as well as the spread of the Poor Clares from Evansville to St. Louis:

https://vocationblog.com/2025/09/mother-mary-maddalena-bentivoglio-o-s-c-liturgical-embroidery/

August 14 St. Maximilian Kolbe

 

St. Maximilian Maria Kolbe (1894-1941)

August 14

            Raymund Kolbe was born in Poland. He and his brother Francis went to the Conventual Franciscan seminary in the city of Lwow. Raymond entered the order of little friars and took the name Maximilian. He was then sent to Rome where he studied philosophy and theology. While there, Maximilian established an organization dedicated to recognizing Mary as the Queen and Mother of human society called the "Army of the Immaculate One."  Maximilian was then ordained a priest in 1918.

            He was not in the best of health, but in 1927 near Warsaw, he established the "City of the Immaculate." (In Polish: Niepokalanów.) This grew to be a large Franciscan community of 738 members engaged in printing religious publications.  Their magazine called Knight of Mary Immaculate had a circulation of almost one million. The fantastic growth of this apostolate occurred during the worst years of the worldwide depression of the 1930’s. During most of that decade, Maximilian was establishing another City of the Immaculate near Nagasaki, Japan.

            From the writings of Father Maximilian: “Dear brother, see the greatness of human dignity conferred by God’s mercy. By obedience we surmount, so to speak, the limits imposed upon us by our weakness; we are made conformable to God’s will which in God’s infinite wisdom and prudence guides us to act correctly. As a matter of fact, by clinging to God’s will which no creature can resist, we surpass everything in power. This is the way of wisdom and prudence; this is the only way we can render the greatest glory to God.  If there were another and more suitable way, Christ surely would have shown it to us by his own words and example.”

            Before World War II began, he returned to Poland. The German Nazis who were occupying Poland soon restricted his activities and then halted publication of the Knight completely. He was arrested in February 1941 and sent to Auschwitz in May. Though very sick himself, he encouraged his fellow prisoners not to let the Nazis lead them to despair of God.

            One Franciscan source recounts that another prisoner, Dr. Joseph Stemler, wrote in his memoirs: “Like many others, I crawled at night in the infirmary on the bare floor to the bed of Father Maximilian. The greeting was moving. We exchanged some impressions of the frightful crematorium. He encouraged me, and I confessed. Discouragement and doubt threatened to overwhelm me; but I still wanted to love. He helped me to strengthen my belief in the final victory of good. ‘Hatred is not creative,’ he whispered to me. ‘Our sorrow is necessary that those who live after us may be happy.’ His reflections on the mercy of God went straight to my heart. His words to forgive the persecutors and to overcome evil with good kept me from collapsing into despair.”

            On July 30, 1941, a prisoner escaped from Auschwitz, and the Nazis retaliated by randomly choosing ten men to be executed by starvation. Father Maximilian offered to take the place of one of those ten, a Sergeant Francis Gajowniczek, who was a father and family man.  Maximilian led the men in prayer in their starvation bunker. During the third week of the ordeal, Maximilian and the other remaining survivors were killed with injections of carbolic acid.

Maximilian was beatified in 1971 and canonized in 1982. He is venerated as the patron saint of amateur radio operators, drug addicts, political prisoners, and journalists. His cell at Auschwitz is a place of pilgrimage. Saint Edith Stein, who was also killed at Auschwitz in 1942, is commemorated a few days prior on August 9^th. As a Discalced Carmelite nun, she took the religious name of Teresa Benedicta of the Cross. Together, these two Catholic saints stand as witnesses against the atrocities and horror of Nazism.