Georgia Martyrs scheduled for beatification on October 31

Five Franciscan friars, known as the Georgia Martyrs, are set to be beatified on October 31. The beatification Mass will be celebrated by Cardinal Frank Leo of Toronto and will be livestreamed via social media, the diocesan website, and EWTN.

The martyrs—Pedro de Corpa, Blas Rodríguez de Cuacos, Miguel de Añón, Antonio de Badajoz, and Francisco de Veráscola—were killed in 1597 during the Guale Uprising. While ministering at missions along the coast and barrier islands of present-day Georgia, they were killed by a group of Indigenous men. The violence was reportedly prompted by Father de Corpa’s instruction to Juanillo, the heir to a Guale chiefdom, that Christian baptism prohibited the custom of taking a second wife.

A sixth friar, Francisco de Avila, was kidnapped and tortured for several months before being released. A monument dedicated to the group stands outside the Nativity of Our Lady Church in Darien, Georgia.