Friday, March 29, AD 2024 5:52am

Saints of Otranto

Twelve years before Christopher Columbus discovered a New World, 800 men and boys of Otranto laid down their lives for Christ.  The city of Otranto, at the heel of the boot of Italy, was seized by the Turks under Gedik Ahmed Pasha, grand vizier of the Ottoman Empire.  Archbishop Stefano Argercolo de Pendinellis was murdered in his cathedral by the Turks and the garrison commander was sawn in half.  Following a massacre of most of the population the Turks offered some 800 men and boys the choice between conversion to Islam or death.  Led by an elderly tailor, Antonio Pezzulla, the men and boys chose death rather than apostacy, and were beheaded on the hill of Minvera outside the town on August 14, 1480, their families forced by the Turks to help in the executions.

Christian forces under  Alfonso of Aragon, a son of the King of Naples, retook the city in 1481, and the bodies of the martyrs were found to be uncorrupted.  The process of canonization was begun in 1529, the martyrs were beatified in 1771 and the martrys were canonized on May 12 by Pope Francis.  In his homily the Pope recalled Christians today who suffer persecution for their faith:

Today the Church proposes for our veneration a host of martyrs, who were called together to the supreme witness to the Gospel in 1480. About eight hundred people, [who], having survived the siege and invasion of Otranto, were beheaded near that city. They refused to renounce their faith and died confessing the risen Christ. Where did they find the strength to remain faithful? Precisely in faith, which allows us to see beyond the limits of our human eyes, beyond the boundaries of earthly life, to contemplate “the heavens opened” – as St. Stephen said – and the living Christ at the right hand of the Father. Dear friends, let us conserve the faith [that] we have received and that is our true treasure, let us renew our fidelity to the Lord, even in the midst of obstacles and misunderstandings; God will never allow us to want [for] strength and serenity. As we venerate the martyrs of Otranto, let us ask God to sustain those many Christians who, in these times and in many parts of the world, right now, still suffer violence, and give them the courage and fidelity to respond to evil with good.

The witness of the martyrs of Otranto was truly remarkable.  Not priests or soldiers, they were just plain, ordinary folk.  They had every earthly reason to attempt to save their lives, but with supernatural courage they went to their deaths for a love that passes understanding.  The old tailor spoke for them all when he addressed them after the Turks had given them their grim choice:

My brothers, until today we have fought in defense of our country, to save our lives, and for our lords; now it is time that we fight to save our souls for our Lord, so that having died on the cross for us, it is good that we should die for him, standing firm and constant in the faith, and with this earthly death we shall win eternal life and the glory of martyrs.

The martyrs in response cried out that they were willing to die a thousand times for Christ.  They exemplify why the Gates of Hell will never prevail against the Church, no matter what the odds and no matter what terrors are mustered by haters of the Cross.

0 0 votes
Article Rating
8 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
T. Shaw
T. Shaw
Monday, May 13, AD 2013 5:58pm

Amen!

Paul W Primavera
Monday, May 13, AD 2013 8:19pm

As Revelation 6:9-11 states:

“When He opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the testimony which they held. And they cried with a loud voice, saying, ‘How long, O Lord, holy and true, until You judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?’ Then a white robe was given to each of them; and it was said to them that they should rest a little while longer, until both the number of their fellow servants and their brethren, who would be killed as they were, was completed.”

Pat
Pat
Tuesday, May 14, AD 2013 8:55am

There’s a picture of the church in Naples where the skulls and bones of these martyrs are at wdtprs.com in the post “Pope Francis canonizes the Martyrs of Otranto, slain by Islamic invaders”.

” As we venerate the martyrs of Otranto, let us ask God to sustain those many Christians who, in these times and in many parts of the world, right now, still suffer violence, and give them the courage and fidelity to respond to evil with good. “

Boghos L. Artinian
Boghos L. Artinian
Tuesday, May 14, AD 2013 11:21am

If dying for Christianity can make one a saint, then the 1.5 million Armenians massacred by the Ottomans in 1915 certainly deserve to be canonized by the Pope!

Boghos L. Artinian MD

Ivan
Ivan
Tuesday, May 14, AD 2013 12:31pm

Revelation 20:4

King James Version (KJV) (The KJV read better when it comes to the blood-curdling passages)

4 And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.

Among the countless stories of Christians persecuted and killed in recent years, this one in particular affected me deeply:

(AINA) — According to the Assyrian website ankawa.com, a 14 year old Christian Assyrian boy, Ayad Tariq, from Baqouba, Iraq was decapitated at his work place on October 21.

Ayad Tariq was working his 12 hour shift, maintaining an electric generator, when a group of disguised Muslim insurgents walked in at the beginning of his shift shortly after 6 a.m. and asked him for his ID.

According to another employee who witnessed the events, and who hid when he saw the insurgents approach, the insurgents questioned Ayad after seeing that his ID stated “Christian”, asking if he was truly a “Christian sinner.” Ayad replied “yes, I am Christian but I am not a sinner.” The insurgents quickly said this is a “dirty Christian sinner!” Then they proceeded to each hold one limb, shouting “Allahu akbar! Allahu akbar!” while beheading the boy.

trackback
Tuesday, May 14, AD 2013 6:00pm

[…] New Saints Martyred for Refusing to Convert to Islam – Cat. Harmon Saints of Otranto – Donald R. McClarey JD, The American Catholic A Novel Approach to Ending Paedophilia – […]

trackback
Wednesday, May 15, AD 2013 1:53am

[…] New Saints Martyred for Refusing to Convert to Islam – Cat. Harmon Saints of Otranto – Donald R. McClarey JD, The American Catholic A Novel Approach to Ending Paedophilia – […]

Ivan
Ivan
Wednesday, May 15, AD 2013 7:00am

A few hundred years later the Ottomans, these same Saracens, with the help of agents of the British Empire, were revamped into sickly Europeans, while the Russians remained a land of mindless Slavs and brutish Vikings to plague the sensibilities of the bovine Queen Victoria.

Discover more from The American Catholic

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading

Scroll to Top