Among the different causes of martyrdom, there were many blessed in history who died at the hands of terrorism out of hatred for the Catholic faith.
In 2017, when remembering the beatification of Zeman Titus, Salesian martyr, Pope Francis hoped “that his testimony would sustain us in the most difficult moments of life and help us recognize, also in trials, the presence of the Lord.”
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On the International Day of Commemoration and Tribute to the Victims of Terrorism, which is commemorated every August 21, we present to you 22 blessed martyrs who died victims of terrorism and hatred of the Catholic faith:
1. Beata “Aguchita”
Sister María Agustina Rivas López, known as “Aguchita”, was a Peruvian religious martyr of the Congregation of Our Lady of Charity of the Good Shepherd, murdered in 1990 by Sendero Luminoso, one of the most bloodthirsty terrorist organizations of the 20th century that caused thousands of deaths in Peru.
A young 17-year-old terrorist killed her with five shots. She was accused of speaking to the Asháninkas, a native community that rejected the Shining Path, and of helping the poor in the town of La Florida, Junín, in the central jungle of Peru.
2. Two Polish martyr priests in Peru
Father Miguel Tomaszek and Father Zbigniew Strzalkowski belonged to the Order of Friars Minor Conventuals of Poland and were murdered in Peru by the Marxist terrorist group Sendero Luminoso in 1991.
The priests served in Pariacoto, in the northern mountains of Peru. There they educated children and young people, taught agriculture and how to build roads to the communities, and assisted the sick, especially during the cholera epidemic that hit the country in 1991.
On August 9, the terrorists kidnapped the priests from the parish house and took them to the cemetery, where they murdered them out of hatred for the faith: Fr. Miguel was shot in the back of the head, and Fr. Zbigniew in the back. Abimael Guzmán, founder of Sendero Luminoso, admitted that he had ordered the execution.
3. Blessed Sandro Dordi
He was an Italian priest of the Paradisso Missionary Community who was murdered at the hands of the Shining Path, days after the martyrdom of the blessed Polish martyrs.
In 1980, the priest began his service as a missionary in the town of Santa, near Chimbote (Peru), which had an active terrorist presence. There he evangelized and educated the population, promoted the revaluation of women, built chapels and helped farmers with construction works.
His work was not well regarded by the terrorist group with a Marxist, Leninist, and Maoist ideology, since it did not allow him to sow his “class hatred” among the residents.
After the death of the Polish martyr priests, Father Dordi said in his last Mass that the terrorists had threatened to kill him. “The third is me,” he said to his three acolytes. On August 25, 1991, terrorists kidnapped him in Vinzos and murdered him with three bullets to the head.
4. Beato Pierre Claverie
The Dominican priest was born in Algeria in 1938, during the French domination of the country. In 1981 he was appointed Bishop of Oran (Algeria), where he served until he was assassinated by Islamic terrorists in that country’s civil war in the 1990s.
The Prelate was a great expert on Islam and fought to bring Christians and Muslims together, opposed violence and worked for peace. For this reason, the extremists murdered him and his driver at the entrance to the bishopric with a bomb attack on August 1, 1996.
5. The 7 blessed Trappist monks
Father Christian de Chergé, superior of the Monastery of Our Lady of Atlas in Tibhirine, (Algeria) was murdered along with six other Trappist monks: Bruno, Christophe, Celestin, Luc, Paul and Michel, at the hands of Islamic terrorists during the war civil in the country in the 1990s.
The seven Trappist monks were between 45 and 82 years old, and offered medical service to the poor in the monastery. Even though the terrorists began to persecute foreigners, especially French, and Christians, the monks decided to stay and serve their people.
In 1996, Islamic terrorists kidnapped them and, months later, announced that they had slit their throats. The murder is considered one of the bloodiest of the war in the country, since their heads appeared on May 30 of that year, but their bodies were never found.
The extremists They also murdered 10 people who gave their lives for the faith in Algeriaamong them, the Spanish Augustinian missionaries Caridad Álvarez and Esther Paniagua.
This article was originally published in ACI Prensa on August 22, 2022. It has been updated for republication.
Cynthia Pérez has been an editor at ACI Prensa since January 2020. She resides in Lima (Peru). She has a bachelor’s degree in Communication Sciences and Arts with a mention in Communication for Development from the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru (PUCP). Throughout her career she has dedicated herself to the creation of multimedia content and the design and management of communication in organizations and social impact projects. She is passionate about creating narratives and interactive experiences that build a more humane and sustainable society.