Palm Beach bishop reflects on Georgia Martyrs’ witness ahead of beatification: ‘A story of missionary courage’
The five Franciscan missionaries’ beatification is the first ever to be celebrated in the American South and falls during the Jubilee year marking the 800th anniversary of St. Francis of Assisi’s death.
Anticipating the Oct. 31 beatification of the five Franciscan missionaries martyred for their faith in 1597, Bishop Manuel de Jesus Rodríguez of Palm Beach, Florida, reflected on their heroic witness in a recent column.
The missionaries, known as the Georgia Martyrs, served in present-day Georgia, but their work was closely tied to St. Augustine, the center of the Spanish missions across the Southeast, Bishop Rodríguez explained.
“This historic occasion, the first beatification ever celebrated in the American South, holds special significance for Florida’s Catholics,” he wrote.
The martyrs — Fathers Pedro de Corpa, Blas Rodríguez, Miguel de Añón, and Francisco de Veráscola, together with Brother Antonio de Badajoz — will be declared Blessed in Savannah, Georgia. Cardinal Frank Leo, archbishop of Toronto, will preside as the representative of Pope Leo XIV.
Sharing the faith along the Atlantic coast of historic Spanish Florida, the missionaries learned Indigenous languages and established some of the earliest Catholic missions in what would become the U.S., the bishop noted.
“For Catholics in Florida, the Georgia Martyrs are not distant figures belonging only to another state’s history. They are part of our own spiritual heritage,” he wrote. “Their missionary journeys began in historic La Florida, their work was bound to St. Augustine, and their blood helped lay the foundations of the Catholic faith in the American Southeast.”
Father Pedro de Corpa, whom the bishop described as the group’s leader, served the Guale people at the mission of Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe in Tolomato, near present-day Darien, Georgia. He was killed Sept. 14, 1597, after opposing the intention of Juanillo, a baptized Guale leader, to take a second wife, the bishop explained.
“His defense of Christian marriage became the spark for the persecution that would also claim the lives of his four companions,” Bishop Rodríguez wrote.
As the violence spread, Father Blas Rodríguez was killed Sept. 16, 1597. He served the Guale at the mission of Santa Clara de Tupiquí, where he preached, taught the faith, and cared for the community, the bishop noted.
At Santa Catalina de Guale on present-day St. Catherines Island, Father Miguel de Añón and Brother Antonio de Badajoz chose to remain with their community despite warnings of danger, the bishop explained. They gathered in prayer before being killed together Sept. 17, 1597.
Brother Antonio, the group’s only lay brother, had spent about 10 years among the Guale. He learned their language and helped teach the faith as a catechist and interpreter.
“His life reminds us that holiness, mission and even martyrdom are callings open to every vocation in the Church,” Bishop Rodriguez wrote.
Father Francisco de Veráscola served at Santo Domingo de Asao, traditionally associated with present-day St. Simons Island. He was killed Sept. 18, 1597, while returning by canoe from St. Augustine, where he had traveled on mission business.
Bishop Rodríguez acknowledged the complex history of Spanish colonization and its encounters with Indigenous peoples. Within that history, he pointed to the missionaries’ willingness to leave their homeland and give their lives rather than abandon their faith and the communities they served.
Pope Francis formally recognized their martyrdom Jan. 27, 2025, opening the way to their beatification. The beatification falls during the 800th anniversary of the death of St. Francis of Assisi, which Pope Leo proclaimed a special Jubilee Year.
Bishop Rodriguez concluded, “As the Church prepares to honor these five new Blesseds, may their witness renew our commitment to evangelization, strengthen our fidelity to the Gospel and remind us that the story of Catholicism in Florida is also a story of missionary courage, sacrifice and holiness.”
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