Liberato Weiss was born in Konnersreuth, Bavaria (Germany), on the 4th January 1675. He entered the Order of Friars Minor in the friary of Graz in the Austrian Province of St. Bernardine on 13th October 1698. He was ordained a priest in Vienna on 14th September 1699.
Less biographical information is available about Br. Samuele Marzorati and Br. Michele Pio Fasoli: both Italian, they were born around 1670, the former in the Province of Pavia, the latter in Biumo, in the Province of Milan.
The stories of these three friars come together in the early 1700s. In 1703, the Minister General of the Order asked the Provinces to present missionaries suitable for Ethiopia, as requested by the local King. The three friars arrived there by different routes: Brother Liberato and Brother Michele Pio immediately volunteered, and Propaganda Fide accepted their request. Together with other missionaries led by Fr. Giuseppe da Gerusalemme, they left Cairo in Egypt on the 14th January 1705 to join the caravan of merchants travelling to Ethiopia. Br. Samuele Marzorati, on the other hand, had already been in Cairo as a missionary since the 10th September 1701, but he did not join the first group until 1711.
The group of missionaries arrived in Debba, Sudan, in June 1705, where they encountered soldiers in full rebellion against the King of Sennar. This prevented them from continuing their journey to Ethiopia, so on the 21st August 1705, they took refuge in Allefun, a respected and therefore non-violent city due to a famous Muslim shrine located there.
They remained there until the 31st March 1708, when they were summoned to Sennar by the King, who had defeated the rebels. Of the eight original missionaries, only three remained: Fr. Giuseppe da Gerusalemme, Br. Liberato Weiss, and Br. Michele Pio, but in May 1709, Fr. Giuseppe died, so the Franciscan friars decided to return to Egypt. Br. Michele Pio, in his role as secretary to the head guide, wrote about this apostolic journey along the Nile, which unfortunately ended in Sudan.
Propaganda Fide decided to make another attempt via the Red Sea and on 20 April 1711 appointed Br. Liberato Weiss as Apostolic Prefect, Br. Michele Pio Fasoli and Br. Samuele Marzorati to undertake the new journey: the three finally met, without knowing that they would end their earthly lives together.
They arrived on the 20th July 1712 in Gondar, the capital of Ethiopia, where they were warmly welcomed by King Justos, but the political situation in Ethiopia was unstable: Europeans were unwelcome, and the King was strongly contested, so the missionary friars had to live almost in hiding, waiting for the situation to improve. The situation deteriorated rapidly: rumours spread throughout the city about the friars and their religion, forcing them to move to the Province of Tigray. Shortly thereafter, King Justos fell ill: his political opponents took advantage of the situation and crowned another King, David.
The missionaries were then summoned back to Gondar by the new rulers: they were tried, condemned to death in odium fidei and stoned to death in Abbo Square on the 3rd March 1716.
The informative process for their beatification was held in Vienna, the Franciscan province of origin of Fr. Liberato Weiss, in 1932-33. They were beatified by Pope John Paul II on the 20th November 1988 in Vienna, during his trip to Austria.
In the diocese of Pavia, their memory is celebrated on the 20th November.
From the website of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints