The Franciscan Custody of the Holy Land thanked with a Mass in Jerusalem the recent canonization of the 11 Martyrs of Damascus, murdered out of hatred for the faith in 1860 and declared saints by Pope Francis on October 20 in the Vatican.
Brother Francesco Patton, Franciscan Custos of the Holy Land, presided at Mass on Sunday, October 27, at the Franciscan Church of San Salvador.
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“They are, in reality, the representatives of tens of thousands of Christians who suffered martyrdom in Lebanon and Syria the same year, and preferred to die rather than renounce Jesus Christ,” the Custos stressed in his homily, according to the website of the Franciscan Custody of the Holy Land.
The 11 Martyrs of Damascus “show us that it is possible to live until the end in complete abandonment and trust in God, even in the midst of difficult situations, unjust persecution and innocent suffering,” indicated the Custodian.
“They tell us that living and loving with this radicality is possible, it is not idealism, it is not utopia. On the contrary, loving until you give your life is the most authentic way to be Christians,” he stressed.
And although not everyone is called to martyrdom of blood, Friar ‘Patton stated, “there is also the martyrdom of everyday life, which is achieved by becoming small and putting oneself at the service of all for the love of God,” which constitutes the style of the service that these saints lived.
The relic of the martyrs
The relic of the martyrs, the same one that was present in St. Peter’s Square for the canonization, occupied a place of honor during the Mass and the Custos carried it in procession at the beginning of the Eucharist and with it gave the final blessing.
During the entire Mass the relic was displayed on the altar set up for the martyrs.
The Eucharist was concelebrated by Bishop Adolfo Tito Yllana, apostolic delegate in Jerusalem and Palestine, and the Maronite archbishop Moussa Hage.
The “Martyrs of Damascus” were murdered “out of hatred of the faith” in the Franciscan church of Saint Paul in Damascus (Syria), between July 9 and 10, 1860. They refused to renounce the Christian faith to convert to Islam.
Eight of the martyrs are Franciscan friars, six priests and two professed religious, all missionaries from Spain, except Father Engelbert Kolland, who was from Austria.
The other three are laymen who also died in the assault on the Franciscan church: Francis, Mooti and Raphael Massabki, all brothers from a Maronite Catholic family.
Francis Massabki, the eldest of the brothers, was the father of eight children. Mooti was a father of five children and visited St. Paul’s Church every day to pray and give catechism lessons. The younger brother, Rafael, was single and was known to spend long periods of time praying in church and helping the friars.
His martyrdom took place during the persecution of Christians by Muslims and Shiite Druze from Lebanon to Syria in 1860, which left thousands of victims.
Late at night, the extremists entered the Franciscan convent, located in the Christian neighborhood of Bab-Touma (Saint Paul) in the Old City of Damascus, and massacred the friars: Fr. Manuel Ruiz, Fr. Carmelo Bolta, Father Nicanor Ascanio, Father Nicolás M. Alberca y Torres, Father Pedro Soler, Kolland, Brother Francisco Pinazo Peñalver and Brother Juan S. Fernández.
ACI Mena —-EWTN News Arabic news agency—provided an account of the martyrdom of the three Massabki brothers who were also in the church that night: The assailants told Francis Massabki that his life and that of his brothers would be spared on the condition that he denied his Christian faith and embraced Islam, to which Francis responded: “We are Christians, and in the faith of Christ, we will die. As Christians, we do not fear those who kill the body, as the Lord Jesus said.”
Refusing to renounce their Christian faith and convert to Islam, the 11 martyrs of Damascus were brutally murdered, some beheaded with sabers and axes, others stabbed or beaten to death.
Every year, on July 10, the liturgical calendar of the Custody of the Holy Land commemorates these martyrs.
Walter Sánchez Silva
I have been a husband since 2008. My wife and I have three children here and one who went to heaven in 2023, before he was born. Since I joined ACI Prensa in 2005, I have had the opportunity to cover various events of the Catholic Church. Among them, the World Youth Days in Cologne, Madrid and Rio de Janeiro and the apostolic trips of Pope Benedict XVI to Mexico and of Pope Francis to South Korea. I have been sent to the Vatican to cover the Family synods, in 2015; of the Amazon, in 2019 and that of Synodality, in 2023. I closely follow the situation of the Catholic Church in Nicaragua, which suffers persecution from the dictatorship of Daniel Ortega, as well as current ecclesiastical events in the region.