Blessed Maximilian (Maksymilian) Binkiewicz

Blessed Maximilian (Maksymilian) Binkiewicz, Priest and Martyr
Gmina Żarnowiec, Poland, February 21, 1908 – Dachau, Germany, August 24, 1942


Blessed Maksymilian Binkiewicz, Polish diocesan priest, was born in Gmina Żarnowiec (Olkusz) February 21, 1908 and died in Dachau, Germany, August 24, 1942. He was Beatified by Pope John Paul II in Warsaw (Poland) June 13, 1999 together with 107 other Polish martyrs.

Roman Martyrology: In the prison camp at Dachau near Munich in Germany, Monaco, blessed Maximian Binkiewicz, Priest and Martyr, who, during the war, was deported by the invading soldiers from Poland because of his faith in Christ and he died under torture and torture.

Maria Teresa Ferragud Roig and her four martyr daughters

Here is a great addition to the blog.

Thanks once again to all who e-mail me their martyrs.

God bless
Stephen

Saint Giordano Ansalone, Dominican Priest, Martyr

Saint Giordano Ansalone, Dominican Priest, Martyr
Santo Stefano Quisquina (Agrigento), 1 November 1598 – Nagasaki (Japan), November 17, 1634

In 1625, he reached Seville on foot, he left for the missions. After a break of about a year in Mexico, across the Pacific in the summer of 1626, he reached the Philippine Islands. First two years costs between the Philippines, Cagayan in northern Luzon, then lived for four years among the Chinese of a colony of the suburb of Binondo, Manila, in the Parish and the Hospital S. Gabriel, built for them. Studied the language, the mentality and customs from the Chinese, showing true forerunner of inculturation and dialogue with non-believers. To do this he also wrote an opera, hopelessly lost, which compiled the main religious beliefs and philosophical ideas of the Chinese, discussing them with the data of faith and Catholic doctrine, for an enlightening comparison. In 1632, the midst of this persecution, he went to Japan, disguised as a merchant, to bring aid and comfort: for a year he was the Vicar Provincial of this mission. Seriously ill on the island of Kyushu, “he implored the Virgin Mary to be cured until they had killed Christ.” He was jailed August 4, 1634 and subjected to unspeakable torture.

Saint Peter Chanel ( ProtoMartyr )

"In 1831, he joined the forming Society of Mary (Marists), who would concentrate on local missions and foreign missionary work. Instead of being selected as a missionary, however, the Marists used his talents as the spiritual director at the Seminary of Belley, where he stayed for five years. In 1833 he accompanied Fr Jean-Claude Colin to Rome to seek approval of the nascent Society. In 1836, the Marists, finally formally approved by Pope Gregory XVI, were asked to send missionaries to the territory of the South West Pacific. Chanel, professed a Marist on 24 September 1836 was made the superior of a band of Marist missionaries that set out on 24 December from Le Havre. They were accompanied by Bishop Jean Baptiste Pompallier who was to become the first Bishop of New Zealand. Pompallier had been appointed by Gregory XVI to care for the Vicariate Apostolic of Western Oceania. Pompallier based himself in New Zealand from 1838 and became the first Bishop of Auckland, New Zealand in 1848.

Travelling via the Canary Islands (8 Jan 1837) where Fr Claude Bret (Chanel's friend) caught a flu-like virus which led to his death at sea (20 Mar 1837) and then Valparaiso (28 June) (where the French Picpus Fathers who had care of the Vicariate of Eastern Oceania had their base) and Gambier (13 Sept) then Tahiti (21 Sept) where the group transferred to the Raiatea and set sail for Tonga (23 Oct) before first dropping two missionaries at ʻUvea (still named Wallis by the French), the mainseat of the mission. Pierre Chanel went to neighbouring Futuna Island, accompanied by a French laybrother Marie-Nizier Delorme. They arrived on 8 November 1837 with an English Protestant layman named Thomas Boag who had been resident on the island and had joined them at Tonga seeking passage to Futuna.

Martyrdom:
The group was initially well received by the island's king, Niuliki. Once the missionaries learned the local language and began preaching directly to the people, the king grew restive. He believed that Christianity would take away his prerogatives as high priest and king. When the king's son, Meitala, sought to be baptized, the king sent a favoured warrior, his son-in-law, Musumusu, to "do whatever was necessary" to resolve the problem. Musumusu initially went to Meitala and the two fought. Musumusu, injured in the fracas ,went to Chanel feigning need of medical attention. While Chanel tended him a group of others ransacked his house. Musumusu took an axe and clubbed Chanel on the head. Pierre died that day, April 28, 1841.

The news of Chanel's death took months to reach the outside world. It was almost a year before Marists in France learned of it; for those in New Zealand it took half that time. Two weeks after the killing the William Hamilton, a passing American trading ship, took Br Marie-Nizier, Boag and others to Wallis (arriving 18 May 1841) and safety. In time it came on to Kororareka, New Zealand. There Marie Nizier told Pompallier’s deputy, Fr Jean-Baptiste Épalle, that Peter Chanel had been murdered."

Stephen Raymond Bou Pascual

Roman Martyrology: In the area of La Nucia near Alicante in Spain ever, blessed Stephen Raymond Bou Pascual, priest and martyr, who, during the same persecution as a faithful disciple, merited salvation in the blood of Christ.

He was Beatified on March 11, 2001 by Pope John Paul II, as one of 233 Blessed Spanish Martyrs of Valencia, victims of the Spanish Civil War

Blessed Theodore Romza, Bishop and Martyr.

On the day when the Church indicates for us to contemplate the glory of all the saints, in communion with all of us on earth, in heaven already living eternal happiness, also used the liturgical feast of Ukrainian Romza Teodoro, one of the martyrs of the twentieth century Beatified by Pope John Paul II. He was born April 14, 1911 in the Carpathian region. After studying in Rome he was ordained a priest of the Greek-Catholic community in 1936. Returned to his diocese of Mukachevo, he became a bishop at only thirty-three. He bravely lived his ministry during very difficult years, between the horrors of war first and then the communist threat. On October 27, 1947 he was authorized to visit a church in his district. But in reality it was a trap, his carriage was struck by a truck and survivors beaten with iron bars. To be sure to kill him, the Bishop Romza was taken to a hospital where he was also poisoned. But the courageous testimony that he had left did not die: the years of persecution the against the Greek-Catholic community kept his memory alive.

Roman Martyrology: In the town of Mukachevo in Ukraine, Blessed Theodore Romza, Bishop and Martyr, who, during Prohibition of faith, responsibility for achieving the palm of glory for having preserved fidelity to the Church.

The way of the Cross.

Hello, I have just received my internet back so thats been a real treat and I thank the Lord for such a gift. There is certainly something about autobiographical writing which I disdain, however a break free from posting martyrs, I feel, may well prove to be a positive one.

Before my conversion to Christianity the Rock'n'roll lifestyle was pretty much how I lived: the alcohol, the drugs, the hatred, the pride, ( pride of which I still struggle to get rid of every day ). I felt I was going against the norm with such behaviour, however after reading how Jesus suffered during his passion, and the martyrs who imitated his example, it really gave me food for thought on how I was actually going with the norm.

Most of us need alcohol to have a good time, but The Holy Spirit through Saint Paul teaches us that we can be happy without such things and that our happiness does not depend on it.

Most of us have sexual relations outside of marriage, yet Jesus and the Martyrs denounced the temptations of the flesh and swam against the tide of such normalities that have always existed in the world.

Most of the world nailed these martyrs to the cross because the message they preached was not to their convenience. It didn't sound normal to them; it went against the norm, so rather than accept the antidote to happiness they threw it to the lions. The evidence of over 1 billion Christians today shows that, although these martyrs may have been thrown to the lions, the message they delivered shall never be devoured.

Let us honour those Martyrs who rebelled against hatred and repayed evil with love.

God bless and take care
Stephen

Brother Richie Fernando ( Jesuit Martyr )