S Modern Martyrs
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Exploring the Church’s modern martyrs Various international agencies report that over 70 million Christians have been murdered for their faith since the time of Christ’s passion. The same agencies claim that upwards of 45 million such murders took place in the 20th century; other reports say as many as 250 Christians are selectively killed each day. For most Christians in the Western world, these numbers are horrific but impact us little. The atrocities are not highlighted by the media, rarely reported in the national news and not often mentioned from the pulpit. We in the West are free to worship Our Lord Jesus publicly, go to Mass on Sunday or even daily, attend Religious Education classes, gather in Eucharistic adoration, march in the Corpus Christi procession, get our children baptized, all without worry that some group or our government is going to deny us any of these actions. We live in a free society. Yet there are Christians throughout the world who are ostracized, persecuted and even murdered for attempting any of these acts we take for granted. They are the martyrs of today. Cardinal Angelo Amato, prefect of the Congregation for Saints’ Causes, swings a censer in front of a reliquary that holds a relic of Blessed Stanley Rother during his beatification Mass Sept. 23 at Oklahoma City’s Cox Convention Center. Blessed Rother, a priest of the Oklahoma City Archdiocese, was murdered in 1981 in the Guatemalan village where he ministered. (CNS photo/Steve Sisney, Archdiocese Oklahoma City) Pope St. John Paul II (r. 1978-2005) addressed martyrs of our time in his November 1994 apostolic letter, Tertio Millennio Adveniente. The pontiff wrote: “At the end of the second millennium, the Church has once again become a Church of martyrs. The persecution of believers — priests, religious and laity — has caused a great sowing of martyrdom in different parts of the world. … This witness [to Christ] must not be forgotten. … In our own century the martyrs have returned, many of them nameless, ‘unknown soldiers’ as it were of God’s great cause. As far as possible, their witness should not be lost to the Church. … [The] local Churches should do everything possible to ensure that the memory of those who have suffered martyrdom should be safeguarded, gathering the necessary documentation.” Pope St. John Paul II is clearly telling us these martyrs, these holy people who gave up their blood for Our Lord Jesus Christ, should not be unknown. The pope discussed martyrs in the early Church: “By proclaiming and venerating the holiness of her sons and daughters, the Church gave supreme honor to God himself: in the martyrs she venerated Christ who was at the origin of their martyrdom and of their holiness.” These first martyrs are honored in the Church liturgy, some names included in our Eucharistic prayers and in the Litany of the Saints. We should not somehow dismiss or overlook those of our era. Numerous countries in the world today take their anti- Christian policies from the second and third century Roman play book. The Romans of that era persecuted Christians because those people chose to follow Jesus Christ, who, the Romans were convinced, was a political threat to their empire. He had been arrested, accused, tried without defense or proper jury, and then crucified. The Romans wanted the first followers of Christ to reject him. They would give Christians the opportunity to deny Jesus and the Good News he taught. When the Christian refused, they were jailed, tortured, and many became martyrs. If the Christian confessed his or her belief and somehow was not killed, the Church considered him or her as confessors. One difference, today, is that many countries skip even the appearance of a trial but incarcerate, torture and even murder thousands of Christians simply because they believe in the teachings of Christ. Those dying for Christ should not be nameless and unknown; amongst them are martyrs or even saints. Steps to sainthood Most individuals entered in the cause for sainthood by Holy Mother Church go through the arduous canonization process of being identified as servant of God, then venerable, then blessed and finally saint. First, the individual is screened to determine if they lived a life of heroic virtue including practicing the cardinal virtues of prudence, temperance, fortitude and justice along with the theological virtues of faith, hope and charity. A complete investigation of the individual is conducted at the diocese level. If the investigation is positive and the Holy See finds no objection, then the proposed saint is known as a servant of God. If after a detailed Vatican review, the pope agrees that the person’s life was one of heroic virtue, then the person can be named venerable. To proceed on, two miracles are required, one for beatification and one for canonization. Being identified as a martyr may eliminate the miracle needed for beatification. Pope Francis on Christian persecutions and martyrs today “Persecution is rather like the ‘air’ that Christians breathe even today. Because even today there are many martyrs, many people who are persecuted for their love of Christ. There are many countries where Christians have no rights. If you wear a cross, you go to jail. And there are people in jail. There are people condemned to death today simply because they are Christians. The number of people killed is higher than the number of early martyrs. It’s higher! But this doesn’t make the news. Television newscasts and newspapers don’t cover these things. Meanwhile people are being persecuted.” — Pope Francis in a homily on June 1, 2018 Martyrdom and sainthood Martyrdom is one way to sainthood in the Catholic Church; that is, a Catholic Christian chooses to die rather than deny Jesus Christ or the Gospels. Among the early believers, many gave up their lives for Jesus. A well-known example of a Christian willing to die for Jesus is exemplified in the martyrdom of Bishop Thascius Cyprian. On Sept. 14, 258, Bishop Cyprian — later St. Cyprian — was commanded by the Romans to revere or honor the Roman gods and thus deny Jesus. Cyprian replied, “I will not do so.” He was subsequently charged by Galerius Maximus, the governor of Carthage: “You have long lived with your sacrilegious convictions, and you have gathered about yourself many others in a vicious conspiracy. You have set yourself as an enemy of the gods of Rome and our religious practices. … [The] most noble of Caesars have been unable to draw you back to the observance of their holy ceremonies. You have been discovered as the author and leader of these heinous crimes, and will consequently be held forth as an example of all those who have followed you in your crime. By your blood the law shall be confirmed.” Cyprian was executed by the sword. Many early Christians would be executed, for refusing to reject or deny Jesus, at the hands of those who hated the Faith. This was the classic example of martyrdom as largely perceived for centuries. The definition or understanding of martyrdom would be modified because of the events of World War II. St. Maximilian Kolbe (CNS file photo) During World War II, the Nazis persecuted Christians ostensibly because they were considered enemies of the state; their practices and Christian ethics ran counter to and were seen as threatening the National Socialist government. The Nazis arrested Christians for a variety of reasons, including for treason, befriending a Jew, speaking against the government and inciting people. The Nazis purposely sought not to make martyrs out of Christians but treated and even punished them as criminals. Hitler allegedly said that his countrymen could either be a German or a Christian but not both. Thousands of Christians were rounded up, imprisoned and many sent to concentration camps. There, along with other prisoners, they were brutalized, often murdered or just disappeared. Christians sent to concentration camps included thousands of members of the clergy like Father Maximilian Kolbe (1894-1941). Father Kolbe, a Polish priest, was imprisoned by the Nazis in 1941 and held in the Auschwitz, Poland, concentration camp. One night a prisoner escaped from the camp. In retribution, the Nazis selected 10 prisoners from the escapee’s cell block to die in the camp’s starvation bunker. One of those selected pleaded that he was a husband and father. When Father Kolbe heard the plea, he offered himself as a replacement, and the Nazis accepted him instead. In the starvation bunker, where their only substance was their own urine, five of the men died within two weeks. The Nazis, anxious for the remaining men to die so the bunker could be used to starve others, injected carbolic acid into the bodies of those still alive, including Father Kolbe. Father Maximilian Kolbe was murdered and died on the vigil of the Feast of the Assumption, Aug. 14, 1941. To remove any evidence of what had taken place, the bodies of the prisoners were quickly cremated. The prisoner replaced by Father Kolbe lived to tell about the incident. A nun a prays near an image of St. Maximilian Kolbe during 2016 visit to the Auschwitz Nazi concentration camp in Oswiecim, Poland. CNS photo/Bob Roller Father Kolbe’s cause for canonization went through all the steps leading to beatification, including being named a confessor and the verification of a miracle. He was beatified by Pope St. Paul VI (r. 1963-78) in 1971. For his selfless act of giving his life for another, Kolbe was given an honorary title, Martyr of Charity. By 1979 the additional requirements for sainthood had been accomplished and canonization was planned.