Trinitarian order: Guardians of the persecuted Christians

The Trinitarian order was born at the end of the 12th century to free Christians persecuted in the Crusades. At present, he continues to help in silence and with humility to those persecuted by his faith, the captives of the 21st century.

Among the busy streets of the Roman neighborhood of Tretevere, a few steps from the Tiber River, one of the oldest basilicas in Rome, that of San Crisgono, guarded by the Trinitarian order since 1850. This basilica was built in memory of a Roman soldier who died martyr after becoming Christianity.

In the convent contiguous to the temple, Fr. Antonio Aurelio, Vicar General of the Order, receives ACI Press. “We were born to go to the dungeons,” he says with conviction.

In a large living room, under the eyes of all the generals of the Order whose paintings preside over the Chamber, Fr. Aurelio explains – with the unmistakable white habit with the blue and red cross scapulary – the reason why the Trinitarian order marked a before and after in the Catholic Church.

A MISSION: Liberate Christians

“The Foundation of the Order in 1198 was a unique fact in the history of the Church, since until then there was only monastic life.” According to Fr. Aurelio, San Juan de Mata, its founder, created the first order that came out of the convent to help those who needed it, especially the prisoners of the Crusades, for whom they paid bailouts and even exchanged.

The Trinitarian order was born with the mission of rescuing and redeeming both captive and Muslims Christians, establishing a new model of religious life focused on action and service outside the monastery. It also points out that the trinitarians went to wars “in peace, not with a weapon, but with a cross.”

“They call us redeemers because we make the same itinerary as the redeemer. Leaves its space, so to speak, of glory, and it abages the world. It will look for the needs, it will look for the fragilities of man to free him, to get him out of that dark dungeons, ”he adds.

In fact, there are currently trinitarians in beatification processLike Antonio da Conceiçao, Trinitarian Portuguese footwear, along with José de la Mother of God and Ignacio Tavares, who died in jail after exchanging to Christian prisoners. “There were religious who, when the money did not arrive and saw that the prisoners were in a very limit situation, they exchanged for them, literally offering their life for the captives,” explains Fr. Antonio Aurelio.

The captives of the 21st century

With the desire to return to the origins of its foundation, he was born in 1999 Trinitarian international solidarity (SIT), whose mission is to help persecuted Christians and work for religious freedom.

According to him Religious freedom report in the world 2023 Help to the needy church (ACN), Christians continue to be the most punished collective. A total of 28 countries, in which more than half of the world’s population (51.5%) inhabits the “red categrore” of persecution. Of these, they are in Africa, where the situation has seriously deteriorated.

Today, trinitarians continue with that legacy, giving their lives for the captives of the 21st century, those who suffer persecution due to their faith. The order currently has 54 communities in Europe, 22 in the United States and Canada; 21 in Latin America; Ten in Madagascar, two in India and two in continental Africa.

In addition to the Trinitarian priests, the contemplative, religious and sisters distributed trinitarian nuns distributed in the houses of Rome and different places in Spain are also part of the order, as well as the Trinitarian laity.

Following the example of a silent saint

Fr. Aurelio refers in this regard to Eight centuries later, The documentary that gives voice to this suffering and puts face to the forgotten Christians in places like Syria, Nigeria or the north of India, but that do not lose hope thanks to the “silent” help that SIC offers them, founded by the Trinitarian family 25 years ago.

“San Juan de Mata is one of the most discreet saints that exist, he never talked about himself,” he says. Based on the humility, discretion and silence of the founder, they wanted to make this documentary, in which the prominence to those who are suffering these extreme situations, that is, today’s captives are given.

“We wanted them to speak. That they express themselves, those who tell us,” says Fr. Antonio Aurelio.

The documentary collects the heartbreaking situation of Nigeria’s girls, kidnapped and raped by Boko Haram’s terrorists. Also the abandonment of Christians in Syria, conceived in the past as the “Switzerland” of the East and destroyed by war, as well as the lack of religious freedom in India. “The Trinitarian family is there, discreetly, as we say, in silence, but it is there,” he emphasizes.

For the superior of the Trinitarians, what “does not count, does not exist,” although he affirms that Christians must be interested in knowing the reality of their persecuted brothers, without looking elsewhere.

“We are already so made of our own schemes, in our own forms, that everything that is different from it slips. That is, it happens like water in the show, that it does not fit. And that is what is happening in the West, what happens in Europe and what happens in the United States,” he laments.

In this context, it clarifies that the Trinitarian order is not a non -governmental organization (NGO), “but that we are religious. Our idea is a religious attitude and unable to stop these wars because it is not in our possibilities, at least what we can do is not to leave them alone, not to leave them abandoned.”

Father Aurelio regrets relativism in the society of developed countries and the lack of “purity of faith.” “We cannot abandon them. It hurts a lot that the West has a hard time knowing that there are people who live the same religion and that they are able to give their lives to stay faithful to that religion,” he tells ACI Press.

In Islam “the person has no identity”

To the question about what is the main motivation that leads to the persecution of Christians or if there is a common factor among the persecutors, the Spanish priest is clear: “The Christian message is what scares them. Christianity is the only religion that has fostered the democratic context, freedom among people. Where Christians are persecuted, fundamentally there are dictatorships and the message of freedom is a message that they do not accept.”

“Christianity,” says Father Aurelio, “is the only religion at the philosophical and theological level that seeks the person as she is, and therefore seeks her integrity. There is a foundation of life that is freedom.”

It emphasizes that Christianity gives a sense of freedom to each person, something that “terrifies dictatorships … everything that is contrary to the search for the common good of the person, which is Christianity, must be persecuted,” he emphasizes.

He also quotes submission and obedience, exercised in some religions, especially Islam. “It is not accepted, there is no person’s concept in these religions. There is the concept of Sunnaa series of norms governing the social movement, but the person has no identity, ”he says.

“It seems that we are now talking a lot about the common good. That is a modern idea of ​​the common good, but the first one who used that word is Saint Paul, in their letters. All this desire to look for the person as the center of that freedom, of that well -being, scares any dictatorship that exists in the world and, therefore, those who manifest this way of life must be persecuted,” he emphasizes.