Martyrs Who Were Not Ecumenical
Pope Francis’s journey to Morocco on March 30 and 31, 2019, comes eight centuries after the passion of the first Franciscan martyrs in 1220 in Marrakesh. Saints who were anything but familiar with the modern conception of inter-religious dialogue.
Five proto-martyrs mark the illustrious beginnings of the Seraphic Order founded in 1209 by St. Francis: Berard of Carbio, from Umbria, and well-versed in the Arabic language, Odo, Peter, and two lay brothers, Adjute, and Accurs.
They came to Andalusia secretly and began preaching the Gospel in front of the mosque of Sevilla before going to find the caliph. They exhorted him to embrace the Catholic Faith, for which they were simply imprisoned at first. After being released, the five religious were taken to Morocco, at their request.
Upon their arrival, they presented themselves to the Sultan of Marrakesh, not to explain to him that the diversity of religions was willed by God, but to convince him to embrace the true Faith and therefore to reject Islam and be baptized.
Because of their determination in preaching the Christian Faith in the city, the five monks were immediately arrested and decapitated with the scimitar of the Sultan himself.
When the bodies of the martyrs were recovered, a young man named Fernando, a canon at the Holy Cross monastery of Coimbra, Portugal, was so moved at the sight of the relics of these holy martyrs that he joined the Franciscan order, taking the name of Anthony. This was the beginning of the story of the great St. Anthony of Padua.
Source: Legenda assidua / FSSPX.News – 3/30/2019
