The Order of Friars Minor celebrates their confreres who were the first to shed their blood as a witness to the Christian faith.
In the General Chapter of the Mats celebrated at Pentecost 1219, Francis gave permission to the friars Otto, Berardo, Vitale, Pietro, Accursio and Adiuto to go and preach the Gospel to the Saracens of Morocco, whilst he would go with the Crusaders to Palestine to visit the Holy Places and bring the Gospel there.
The six missionaries set out on foot for Spain; when they arrived in the Kingdom of Aragon, fr Vitale, the Superior of the expedition, fell ill and had to retreat, but this did not prevent the other five friars from continuing on their journey under the guidance of fr Berardo. Arriving in Spain, they made their way across the country until they arrived in Seville, at the time the capital of the Arab Kingdom bearing the same name. Thereupon, they immediately went to the main mosque and began to preach the Gospel and against Islamism; they were taken for madmen, beaten, and brought before the King, who, after listening to them reluctantly, had them imprisoned and then executed.
On the advice of his son, the King submitted them to the judgment of the court: the friars expressed the desire to be able to go to Africa, to Morocco, and the Sovereign agreed. Here, too, the missionaries freely preached the Gospel against Muhammad and Islam (fr Bernard knew the local language); the Sultan of Morocco Abu Yacub had them arrested several times, but they managed to get out thanks to the mediation of Don Pedro Fernando, brother of the King of Portugal Alfonso II who was also their benefactor.
So, they continued to preach openly in spite of the King's prohibition, who finally decided to hand them over to the mercy of the people to be beaten and humiliated. The Franciscans endured these torments with such fortitude that Sultan Abu Yacub, admired them for their patience and resignation, and tried to convince them to embrace Islam by promising riches, honours, and other pleasures. The friars, however, rejected all flattery and persevered undaunted in exalting the Christian religion at the expense of the Muslim one; the sultan did not resist any longer and, enraged, he himself beheaded the five missionaries with his scimitar in his court in Marrakech: it was the 16th January, 1220.
Then, the people immediately seized the bodies and heads of the Martyrs thrown out of the royal palace and, amidst shouts and outrages of all kinds, dragged them through the streets of the city, to finally expose them on a dunghill at the mercy of dogs and birds. A providential storm, however, put those people to flight, allowing the Christians to recover the remains of the friars and transport them to the residence of the Infante Pedro of Portugal, who placed the heads and bodies in two silver chests and took them with him to his homeland. The prince took the precious relics to the church of the Royal Monastery of
Santa Croce in Coimbra, where they were received with solemn homage by the King and Queen and the people, and in fact, are still venerated there to this day.
The martyrdom of the Franciscans led the young priest Ferdinand of Lisbon, of the Order of Canons Regular of St. Augustine, to pass to the Order of Friars Minor; it was the same person we know and venerate to-day as St. Anthony of Padua.
Pope Sixtus IV canonized them with the bull Alias animo on the 7th August , 1481.
From the Friars Minor Saints and ‘Blesseds’, edited by fr. Silvano Bracci, OFM and Sr. Antonietta Pozzebon, FMSC. Editrice Velar, 2009, pp.19-22.
