Scottish Catholic Observer

Pope Francis has created more than 800 new saints at the largest mass Canonisation in history.

During the Canonisations at St Peter’s Square on Sunday May 12—Pope Francis’ first—the Holy Father said the martyrdoms of the vast majority of the new saints should remind us all that Christians are still being persecuted all over the world.

The majority of the new saints Canonised on Sunday were 800 laymen from the southern Italian port town of Otranto who were slain in the 15th century by an invading Muslim army after they refused to convert to Islam.

During the service, Pope Francis also Canonised St Laura Montoya, the first saint born in Colombia, and Mexico’s St Maria Guadalupe Garcia Zavala.

At the Canonisations, Pope Francis compared Antonio Primaldo—a tailor and leader of the Otranto martyrs—to St Stephen, the first martyr, and then used their lives as an example to Christians being persecuted in the Middle East today.

“Where did they find the strength to remain Faithful?” the Pope asked. “The martyrs’ faithfulness even unto death and the proclamation of the Gospel are rooted in the love of God that has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit. Let us ask God to sustain those many Christians who, in these times and in many parts of the world, right now, still suffer violence, and give them the courage and fidelity to respond to evil with good.”

Pope Francis also called on the Otranto martyrs to ‘help the beloved Italian people look with hope to the future.’

The Martyrs of Otranto endured a week-long siege against a huge invading Turkish Army in 1480. When Ottoman soldiers finally overran the town, they were ordered to kill every man over the age of 15 who refused to convert to Islam. Local tailor Antonio Primaldo, was first to be beheaded. According to local legend, his headless body remained standing until the last of his fellow townsmen was killed.

Since then, Primaldo and his townsfolk, who chose to die rather than betray their Catholic Faith, have been hailed as martyrs.

The Otranto martyrs, Beatified in 1771, were described by Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI in 2007 as being ‘killed out of hatred for their Faith.’ During the service on Sunday, Pope Francis also Canonised St Laura Montoya, the first saint born in Colombia, who spread the Faith to indigenous Colombians; and St Maria Guadalupe Garcia Zavala, known as Mother Lupita, who helped set up the Congregation of the Handmaids of St Margaret Mary Alacoque and the Poor.

Pope Francis said that all the saints Canonised offered a ‘shining example’ to all Christians and demonstrated the dangers of ‘gentrification of the heart’ caused by comfortable living.

“How much damage does the comfortable life, well-being, do?” the Pope added, looking up from his prepared text. “The gentrification of the heart paralyses us.”

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— This story ran in full in the May 17 print edition of the SCO