Newspaper Page Text
The Southern Cross, Page 6
Thursday, September 14, 2000
Canonization efforts continue for Georgia martyrs
By Barbara D. King
A s the Diocese of Savannah prepares to cele
brate its 150th birthday, efforts to seek can
onization of five Franciscan missionaries who
were martyred on the Golden Isles of Georgia
over 400 years ago continue.
Father Conrad Harkins, OFM, has taken up the
work of the late Father Alexander Wyse, OFM,
vice postulator (or petitioner) of the cause which
is asking the Vatican to add the five men to the
list of saints in the Catholic Church.
“There is still work to be done, but it is conceiv
able that we will have among the few Americans
who have been named saints, five men from south
Georgia, within the next few years,” said Father
Harkins.
The Franciscan friar was in Savannah for a
week last June to answer written questions posed
by Vatican officials since they received the docu
mentation that the five men died for their faith
while serving on Georgia’s barrier islands.
It was in 1597 that the five friars died at the
hands of a rebellious group of Guale Indians, who
opposed Christian teaching that there could only
be one wife in a valid Christian marriage. The
small band of Indians acted in support of Juanillo,
a prospective chief of the tribe, who had refused
Left: Father Conrad
Harkins, OFM, vice
postulator
of the cause of the
Georgia martyrs,
examines a skull, possi
bly of one
of the martyrs,
discovered during
excavations at Fort
King George, near
Darien.
Right: Father Harkins,
at Eulonia, prepares for
an interview for the
documentary being
produced for the
Sesquicentennial of the
Diocese of Savannah.
Photos by Jonas N. Jordan
to give up his second wife.
The martyrs are Father Pedro de Corpa of
Tolomato, near Darien; Father Bias de Rodriguez
of Tupique, near Eulonia; Father Miguel de
Aunon and Brother Antonio de Badajoz of Saint
Catherines Island; and Father Francisco de
Berascola of Saint Simons Island. They had come
to the islands as missionaries from Spain to con
vert the Native American population.
In 1993, former Savannah Bishop Raymond
Lessard celebrated Mass at Saint William Church
on Saint Simons Island marking the conclusion of
the diocesan process for the canonization of the
five men.
“Why do we pursue the cause of the Georgia
Martyrs?” Bishop Lessard said at the ceremony.
“To lift up in an age which has grown soft the
enduring example of witness to the faith, especial
ly when that witness may lead to difficulties and
even death.”
He continued with two other reasons for pursu
ing the cause of the martyrs. “For the 100,000
migrant workers, many of them mestizos, in the
Savannah diocese for whom the faith of these
Spanish martyrs is an example. For the Christian
people struggling to be faithful to their marriages,
for which these martyrs shed their blood.”
He added, “It is a cause that we pursue with
great sensitivity to the Native American popula
tion, from which we must ask forgiveness for so
many failures, but with the firm belief that the
Gospel is intended for every culture, according to
the words of Jesus Christ, ‘Go, and make disciples
of all nations’.”
In the 1970s and 1980s, archaeologists dug up
the remains of the Spanish mission on St.
Catherines, and in so doing unearthed the graves
of more than 400 Indians buried beneath the
chapel. Bishop Lessard went to the island in the
1980s to participate in a service to reconsecrate
the cemetery.
Last July Bishop J. Kevin Boland traveled to St.
Catherines to see the site and to participate in the
making of a documentary about the origins of
Catholicism in south Georgia. Craig Harney of
WTOC-TV in Savannah is producing the docu
mentary, which will be shown on television sta
tions in south Georgia and will also be available
for sale for home use. Jonas Jordan, photographer
for The Southern Cross, documented the trip with
photographs for use in the paper and also as part
of a traveling display that Diocesan Archivist
Gillian Brown is creating in connection with the
Sesquicentennial of the diocese.
Book, video to commemorate diocese’s 150 years
T he Diocese of Savannah announces two plans to commemorate its 150th
anniversary, a book and a video.
The book, entitled One Faith... One Family: The Diocese of Savannah,
1850 -2000, is a 350-page compilation of historical essays on the Catholic
presence in south Georgia and historical sketches of each parish and mission
in the diocese. Lavishly illustrated with black-and-white photographs from
the diocesan archives, the “coffee-table” style book also contains a 16-page
section of color photographs illustrating the variety among the Catholic peo
ple and the many activities undertaken by the Church in the 90 counties that
make up the far-flung Diocese of Savannah.
Every registered family in the Diocese will soon receive a brochure from
Signature Publications in Syracuse, New York, offering them the book for
$30. The brochure contains an order form, enabling the buyer to have the
book delivered through his or her parish at no extra charge, or to have it sent
directly to a home address, for an additional $8.00. Those ordering by mail
will also have the option of charging the order to a major credit card.
The video, produced with the help of WTOC-TV in Savannah, begins with
the arrival of Spanish missionaries on the coastal islands of Georgia over 400
years ago. It includes information about the first Catholic settlement estal-
bished after the Spanish left—in the Sharon/Locust Grove area near Augusta.
Other anecdotes connected with the history of the diocese will make up the
rest of the video. Information on pricing and how to order the video will be
available soon.