From the desk of the Tar Heel disciple:
February 26, 2026 (#79)
The Georgia Martyrs
At the mention of “the Spanish missions,” most Americans with any familiarity of colonial history might think first of the California missions established in the eighteenth century by St. Junípero Serra and his brother Franciscans. Some might also be familiar with the string of missions founded by Franciscan missionaries in Texas in the same century, which terminated at the mission now known as the Alamo. But very few are aware that a much more extensive network of missions was founded in the sixteenth century by Franciscans in present-day Florida and Georgia. This extensive network of missions eventually numbered nearly 150 locations, consisting largely of simple wooden and thatch structures.
In 1565, the Spanish city of Saint Augustine (Florida) was founded. The first Franciscan missionaries arrived in La Florida in 1573, and their efforts of evangelization proved fruitful among the native population of the region, until 1704, when years of military attacks from South Carolina by the English and their Indian allies culminated in the complete destruction of the missions and death many indigenous Catholic.
In 1595, six Franciscans were sent to various Guale communities (in present-day Georgia).
Five of these missionaries, Father Pedro de Corpa, Father Blas Rodríguez, Father Miguel de Añon, Brother Antonio de Badajóz, and Father Francisco de Veráscola, were killed in September 1597, when the heir to a local chief, who had previously embraced the Catholic Faith and been baptized, sought to take a second wife. The opposition of the five friars to his plans resulted in their violent deaths, which in January of last year (2025), after many years of careful historical investigation, finally led the Holy See to formally recognize them as martyrs.
The Bishop of Savannah, Raymond W. Lessard, officially opened the cause for the beatification and canonization of these martyrs on February 22, 1984. This diocesan phase of the process was concluded in March 2007, and the relevant documents were sent to the Vatican. Most recently, it has been announced by the Holy See that these five Spanish Franciscans will be declared “blessed” (i.e., “beatified”) on October 31, 2026, in Savannah, Georgia, by Cardinal Archbishop Francis Leo of Toronto. (This would be the final step before the possibility of their being declared “saints” by means of their canonization.)
Holy Martyrs of Georgia, pray for us!
