Pedro Marieluz Garcés (or Peter Marielux) (born in 1780 in

Tarma '') , pushpin_map = Peru , coordinates = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = , subdivision_type1 = Region , subdivision_name1 = Junín , subdivision_type2 = Province ...

/Peru, died on 23 September 1825 in

Callao Callao () is a Peruvian seaside city and Regions of Peru, region on the Pacific Ocean in the Lima metropolitan area. Callao is Peru's chief seaport and home to its main airport, Jorge Chávez International Airport. Callao municipality consists o ...

/Peru) was a Roman

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 ...

who died as a

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 ...

of the Seal of the Confessional. As a young man, Pedro Marieluz Garcés entered the order of the

Camillians The Camillians or Clerics Regular, Ministers to the Sick ( la, Clerci Regulari Ministeri Infirmaribus) are a Roman Catholic religious order, founded in 1582 by St. Camillus de Lellis (1550-1614). A large red cross was chosen by the founder as t ...

and was

ordained Ordination is the process by which individuals are consecrated, that is, set apart and elevated from the laity class to the clergy, who are thus then authorized (usually by the denominational hierarchy composed of other clergy) to perform va ...

a priest in 1805. Later he became a military chaplain with the troops of the Spanish Royal Governor, Ramón Rodil. During the siege of the fortress Real Felipe in the city of

after the

Battle of Ayacucho The Battle of Ayacucho ( es, Batalla de Ayacucho, ) was a decisive military encounter during the Peruvian War of Independence. This battle secured the independence of Peru and ensured independence for the rest of South America. In Peru it is co ...

, there was a conspiracy made against Rodil by some of the Royal soldiers. The plot was discovered and Rodil sentenced the conspirators to death. They were allowed to

confess A confession is a statement – made by a person or by a group of persons – acknowledging some personal fact that the person (or the group) would ostensibly prefer to keep hidden. The term presumes that the speaker is providing information th ...

to Marieluz before being shot. After the execution of the plotters, Rodil is said to have doubted whether he had convicted all members of the plot and, thinking that the executed ones would have revealed everything in confession to Marieluz, he tried to force the confessor to disclose to him what he had heard in the confessions by threatening him to be shot likewise, if he would not obey. But Marieluz remained steadfast and was executed on the evening of 23 September 1825, becoming a

in the eyes of the Catholic Church.

Sources

"Father Peter Marielux" in The Holiness of the Church in the nineteenth Century"A Martyr Priest", Article in the Freeman's Journal, Thursday, 23 May 1912, page 36"A Martyr Priest", Article in the Klimore Free Press, 11 July 1912"The Story of Father Marielux. Martyr of Sacramental Seal" in the Freeman's Journal, Thursday, 17 December 1925, page 40

References

1780 births 1825 deaths 19th-century Peruvian Roman Catholic priests Martyred Roman Catholic priests Camillians People from Junín Region 19th-century Roman Catholic martyrs {{Peru-reli-bio-stub