In his first canonisation ceremony, Pope Francis will raise to the altars an estimated 800 Italian laymen martyrs killed by Ottoman soldiers in the 15th century.
Many of the martyrs’ skulls adorn the walls of the sanctuary in the cathedral at Otranto, a small port town at the eastern tip of southern Italy, where the massacre took place in 1480.
The announcement of the May 12 canonisation was made by Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI on February 11, but the news was overshadowed by the announcement of his resignation on the same day.
When the residents of Otranto refused to surrender to the Muslim army after a weeklong siege of their town, the soldiers were ordered to kill all males over the age of 15.
Many were given the option of converting to Islam instead, but Blessed Antonio Primaldo, a tailor, spoke on the prisoners’ behalf.
“We believe in Jesus Christ, Son of God, and for Jesus Christ we are ready to die,” he said, according to Blessed John Paul II, who visited Otranto in 1980 for the 500th anniversary of the martyrs’ deaths.
Primaldo inspired all the other townspeople to take courage, the late Pope said, and to say: “We will all die for Jesus Christ; we willingly die so as to not renounce his holy faith.”
These men were not “deluded” or “outdated,” Blessed John Paul continued, but “authentic, strong, decisive, consistent men” who loved their city, their families and their faith.
In 1771, the Church recognised the validity of the local veneration of Primaldo and his companions and allowed them to be called Blessed.
In 2007, Pope Benedict formally recognised their martyrdom and in 2012 he recognised a miracle attributed to their intercession. Although martyrs do not need a miracle in order to be beatified, a miracle must be recognised before they can be pronounced saints.
Image: Patheos