André de Soveral, SJ (1572 - July 16, 1645) was a

Portuguese-Brazilian Portuguese Brazilians ( pt, luso-brasileiros) are Brazilians whose ancestry originates wholly or partly in Portugal. Most of the Portuguese who arrived throughout the centuries in Brazil sought economic opportunities. Although present since th ...

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

priest A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in particu ...

saint In religious belief, a saint is a person who is recognized as having an exceptional degree of Q-D-Š, holiness, likeness, or closeness to God. However, the use of the term ''saint'' depends on the context and Christian denomination, denominat ...

and

martyr A martyr (, ''mártys'', "witness", or , ''marturia'', stem , ''martyr-'') is someone who suffers persecution and death for advocating, renouncing, or refusing to renounce or advocate, a religious belief or other cause as demanded by an externa ...

, killed during the Restoration War at the Martyrdom of Cunhau, a

massacre A massacre is the killing of a large number of people or animals, especially those who are not involved in any fighting or have no way of defending themselves. A massacre is generally considered to be morally unacceptable, especially when per ...

promoted by

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

troops and their

Calvinists Calvinism (also called the Reformed Tradition, Reformed Protestantism, Reformed Christianity, or simply Reformed) is a major branch of Protestantism that follows the theological tradition and forms of Christian practice set down by John Ca ...

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elders, who fought against the

Portuguese Empire The Portuguese Empire ( pt, Império Português), also known as the Portuguese Overseas (''Ultramar Português'') or the Portuguese Colonial Empire (''Império Colonial Português''), was composed of the overseas colonies, factories, and the l ...

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

. Soveral was canonized in 2017 by

Pope Francis Pope Francis ( la, Franciscus; it, Francesco; es, link=, Francisco; born Jorge Mario Bergoglio, 17 December 1936) is the head of the Catholic Church. He has been the bishop of Rome and sovereign of the Vatican City State since 13 March 2013. ...

along with 29 fellow martyrs.

Biography

André de Soveral was born in

Captaincy of São Vicente The Captaincy of São Vicente (1534–1709) was a land grant and colonial administration in the far southern part of the colonial Portuguese Empire in Colonial Brazil. History In 1534 King John III of Portugal granted the Captaincy to Martim A ...

, present São Vicente. On August 6, 1593, he joined the Society of Jesus (SJ). After completing his studies at the Jesuit college of the Infant Jesus, he entered the novitiate of the Society at the College of Bahia at the age of 21. In 1606 Soveral was sent among the Indians in the

Rio Grande do Norte Rio Grande do Norte (, , ) is one of the states of Brazil. It is located in the northeastern region of the country, forming the northeasternmost tip of the South American continent. The name literally translates as "Great Northern River", ref ...

region, but only a year later he left the Society of Jesus to become a diocesan pastor in Cunha. In 1614 he was already a parish priest in Cunhaú (near

Natal NATAL or Natal may refer to: Places * Natal, Rio Grande do Norte, a city in Brazil * Natal, South Africa (disambiguation), a region in South Africa ** Natalia Republic, a former country (1839–1843) ** Colony of Natal, a former British colony ( ...

in the state of Rio Grande do Norte), as a

diocesan priest In Christianity, the term secular clergy refers to deacons and priests who are not monastics or otherwise members of religious life. A secular priest (sometimes known as a diocesan priest) is a priest who commits themselves to a certain geogra ...

. Cunhaú was a village of Canguaretama, in Rio Grande do Norte, which was formed around a

sugar cane mill A sugar cane mill is a factory that processes sugar cane to produce raw or white sugar. The term is also used to refer to the equipment that crushes the sticks of sugar cane to extract the juice. Processing There are a number of steps in prod ...

, one of the riches of the region, in addition to the mines for the production of parts, since those on the other side of the ocean took too long and were expensive, with the threat of low profitability and loss of input in time to be processed by the transformation center (a kind of expansion of Paraiba and Pernambuco production to the north, which is the economic cradle of Potiguar).

Martyrdom

On the morning of 16 July 1645, while celebrating

Mass Mass is an intrinsic property of a body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the quantity of matter in a physical body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physics. It was found that different atoms and different elementar ...

at the Parish of Our Lady of the Candles or Purification, the German Jacó Rabe broke into the church, with the excuse of communicating some provisions by the Supreme Dutch Council of Recife. But after the consecration, the Dutch soldiers, accompanied by the Indians of the tribes of the Tapuias and of the Patiguari, rushed into the church and massacred all the faithful, with the same Father André de Soveral, who died praying the prayers of the dying their corpses were then looted and only five Portuguese faithful were taken hostage and taken to the Dutch Fort of the Magi. Of the 69 martyrs, only the name of the layman Domingos Carvalho is known.

Canonization

André de Soveral and Domingos Carvalho were beatified by John Paul II on March 5, 2000, together with Father

Ambrósio Francisco Ferro Ambrósio Francisco Ferro (? - October 3, 1645) was a Brazilian priest and is a saint of the Catholic Church. Biography Francisco Ferro, a native of Azores, came to Brazil with relatives. He was ordained priest and from 1636 he was a parish pr ...

, layman

Mateus Moreira Mateus MoreiraMartyrs of Brazil
CatholicSaints.Info (died 3 October 1645) is a

and their fellow

Martyrs of Natal The Martyrs of Natal were a group of 30 Roman Catholic people of Colonial Brazil – two of them priests – killed in the northern part of the colony in massacres that a large group of Dutch Calvinists led. One priest was a Colonial Brazilian J ...

.Brazylia: Wspomnienie pierwszych męczenników
na wiara.pl publikowano: 2009-10-03/ref> On March 23, 2017,

signed a decree recognizing the miracle through the intercession of André de Soveral and his companions, and on April 20, 2017 during the

consistory Consistory is the anglicized form of the consistorium, a council of the closest advisors of the Roman emperors. It can also refer to: *A papal consistory, a formal meeting of the Sacred College of Cardinals of the Roman Catholic Church *Consistory ...

he set the date of their canonization. On October 15, 2017, in

St. Peter's Square Saint Peter's Square ( la, Forum Sancti Petri, it, Piazza San Pietro ,) is a large plaza located directly in front of St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City, the pope, papal enclave and exclave, enclave inside Rome, directly west of the neighbor ...

, Pope Francis held the

canonization Canonization is the declaration of a deceased person as an officially recognized saint, specifically, the official act of a Christian communion declaring a person worthy of public veneration and entering their name in the canon catalogue of ...

ceremony of the 30 Protomartyrs of Brazil, whose liturgical feast was celebrated on the 3rd of October. Liturgical memorial of Soveral and his companions from Cunhaú are celebrated as a moment of death (July 16) and on the day of the death of Ambrósio Francisco Ferro and comrades from Uruaçu (October 3), who is in the state of Rio Grande a day off work.

References

External links

Blesseds André de Soveral, Ambrósio Francisco Ferro, presbyters, and Mateus Moreira, martyrs, +1645, evangelizo.org, 03 de Outubro de 2011

Martyrdom of Cunhaú, Blessed Martyrs of Rio Grande do Norte

* ttp://www.opoka.org.pl/biblioteka/T/TS/swieci/b_andrzej_soveral.html Błogosławieni Andrzej de Soverela, Ambroży Franciszek Ferro i 28 towarzyszy {{DEFAULTSORT:Soveral, Andre de 1572 births 1645 deaths Brazilian Roman Catholic saints 17th-century Roman Catholic martyrs 17th-century Brazilian Jesuits Jesuit missionaries Victims of anti-Catholic violence Beatifications by Pope John Paul II Canonizations by Pope Francis