The Martyrs of Natal were a group of 30

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people of

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– two of them

priests 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 ...

– killed in the northern part of the colony in massacres that a large group of Dutch

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led. One

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was a Colonial Brazilian

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missionary, while the other priest was an evangelizer himself. The others were all lay

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, most of them anonymous members of the Church, some of them children. The 30 individuals were beatified in

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on 5 March 2000.

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– on 23 March 2017 – signed a decree that approved their canonization while waiving the miracle required for sainthood; the date was formalized at a gathering of cardinals on 20 April and the group was canonized as saints on 15 October 2017.

Lives and murders

Background

The Natal region was colonized after the Portuguese

arrived but the Dutch

soon took over and spread their anti-Catholic sentiment across the region, while making persecution of all remaining Catholics an objective for them. Despite the air of persecution some

moved to the area in order to sustain the people in their faith.

André de Soveral

André de Soveral André de Soveral, SJ (1572 - July 16, 1645) was a Portuguese-Brazilian Catholic priest saint and martyr, killed during the Restoration War at the Martyrdom of Cunhau, a massacre promoted by Dutch troops and their Calvinists Protestant elders, ...

was born in Brazil in 1572. He was a professed member of the

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, having entered the

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in 1593 and making his period of

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. He studied

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– as well as the native language – and theological studies before being sent to the college in

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. His first experience in the missions was in

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in 1606 amongst the natives, for

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lessons. In 1614 he was a parish priest in Cunhaú. On 16 July 1645 – a Sunday – there were 69 people gathered in the chapel of Our Lady of the Candles for a Mass that Soveral presided over. It was just before the Eucharistic rite that Dutch soldiers attacked the chapel and murdered Soveral and a companion – Domingos Carvalho – along with others.

October massacre

On 3 October 1645 a total of 200 armed natives with their Dutch allies targeted and hacked to death 30 individuals including children and one priest. The leader of this group was the radical Calvinist Antonio Paraopaba. Mateus Moreira – a victim of the onslaught – cried out as he died: "Praise be the Blessed Sacrament".

Individuals

Monumento aos Mártires, São Gonçalo do Amarante (RN)

The 2 individuals killed on 16 July 1645 are: *

(b. 1572) –

Jesuit , image = Ihs-logo.svg , image_size = 175px , caption = ChristogramOfficial seal of the Jesuits , abbreviation = SJ , nickname = Jesuits , formation = , founders ...

priestJesuit André de Soveral Among New Saints Canonized by Pope Francis
from Jesuits.org, retrieved 24 October 2017 * Domingos Carvalho – layman The 28 individuals killed on 3 October 1645 are: * Ambrósio Francisco Ferro – priest * Antônio Vilela – married layman * A daughter of Vilela – young laywoman * José do Porto – layman * Francisco de Bastos – layman * Diogo Pereira – layman * João Lostau Navarro – layman * Antônio Vilela Cid – layman * Estêvão Machado de Miranda – married layman * A daughter of de Miranda – young laywoman * A daughter of de Miranda – young laywoman * Vicente de Souza Pereira – layman * Francisco Mendes Pereira – layman * João da Silveira – layman * Simão Correia – layman * Antônio Baracho – layman * Mateus Moreira – layman * João Martins – layman * 7 lay companions of Martins * Manuel Rodrigues de Moura – married layman * The wife of Moura – married laywoman * A daughter of Francisco Dias – laywoman

Canonization

The beatification process opened in Natal on 6 June 1989 after the Congregation for the Causes of Saints issued the official " nihil obstat" and titled them all as

Servants of God "Servant of God" is a title used in the Catholic Church to indicate that an individual is on the first step toward possible canonization as a saint. Terminology The expression "servant of God" appears nine times in the Bible, the first five in ...

. The diocesan process spanned from 1989 until 1994 and the C.C.S. later validated this process on 25 November 1994 before receiving the

Positio In the Catholic Church, a ''positio'' (''Positio super Virtutibus'') is a document or collection of documents used in the process by which a person is declared Venerable, the second of the four steps on the path to canonization as a saint. De ...

in 1998. The theologians approved the cause on 23 June 1998 as did the C.C.S. on 10 November 1998.

Pope John Paul II Pope John Paul II ( la, Ioannes Paulus II; it, Giovanni Paolo II; pl, Jan Paweł II; born Karol Józef Wojtyła ; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 1978 until his ...

confirmed that the group were all killed "in odium fidei" (in hated of the faith) and thus approved their beatifications. He presided over the beatification celebration in

on 5 March 2000.

had expressed in the past his closeness to this particular cause and expressed willingness to canonize them as saints. The C.C.S. met on 14 March 2017 to discuss the omission of the miracle needed for canonization and voiced their approval of that. The pope approved the canonization on 23 March 2017 in an official decree with the date formalized at a gathering of cardinals on 20 April; the group was canonized in Saint Peter's Square on 15 October 2017. The

postulator A postulator is the person who guides a cause for beatification or canonization through the judicial processes required by the Roman Catholic Church. The qualifications, role and function of the postulator are spelled out in the ''Norms to be Obse ...

for this cause at the time of the canonization was Giovangiuseppe Califano.

References

External links

Hagiography CircleSaints SQPN
{{DEFAULTSORT:Martyrs of Natal Jesuit saints Year of birth unknown 1645 deaths 17th-century Christian saints 17th-century Brazilian Jesuits 17th-century venerated Christians 17th-century Brazilian people 17th-century Roman Catholic martyrs Beatifications by Pope John Paul II Brazilian murder victims 17th-century Brazilian Roman Catholic priests Brazilian Roman Catholic saints Portuguese Roman Catholic saints Canonizations by Pope Francis Jesuit martyrs Jesuit missionaries Martyred Roman Catholic priests Groups of Roman Catholic saints Murdered Brazilian children People from São Paulo People murdered in Brazil