On Oct. 31, 2026, the Catholic Church in the United States will mark an extraordinary moment in its history: the beatification of five Spanish Franciscan missionaries who gave their lives for Christ more than four centuries ago. Known as the Georgia Martyrs, Fathers Pedro de Corpa, Blas Rodríguez, Miguel de Añón, and Francisco de Veráscola, together with Brother Antonio de Badajoz, will be declared Blessed at a solemn celebration in Savannah, Georgia. Cardinal Frank Leo, archbishop of Toronto, will preside as the representative of Pope Leo XIV.
This historic occasion, the first beatification ever celebrated in the American South, holds special significance for Florida’s Catholics. Although the missionaries died in present-day Georgia in September 1597, their lives and apostolic labors were closely bound to Florida, above all to St. Augustine, the spiritual and administrative heart of the Spanish missions across the Southeast.
In the 16th century, the territory known as La Florida extended far beyond the borders of our present-day state. After the founding of St. Augustine in 1565, Franciscan missionaries established communities along the Atlantic coast, where they evangelized Indigenous peoples, learned their languages and built some of the earliest Catholic missions in what would one day become the United States.
Father Pedro de Corpa, regarded as the leader of the group, arrived in Spanish Florida in 1587. He served among the Guale people at the mission of Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe in Tolomato, near present-day Darien, Georgia. Remembered for his missionary zeal and fidelity to Church teaching, he was killed on Sept. 14, 1597, after opposing the intention of Juanillo, a baptized Guale leader, to take a second wife. His defense of Christian marriage became the spark for the persecution that would also claim the lives of his four companions.
Father Blas Rodríguez, a native of Cuacos, Spain, arrived in Florida in 1590. Assigned to the mission of Santa Clara de Tupiquí, he devoted himself to preaching, catechesis and the pastoral care of the Guale. As the uprising spread through the Franciscan missions, he was killed on Sept. 16, 1597.
Father Miguel de Añón, associated with Zaragoza, Spain, was among the more recently arrived missionaries. After traveling through Florida and being briefly called to Havana, he joined Brother Antonio de Badajoz at the mission of Santa Catalina de Guale on present-day St. Catherines Island. Warned that danger was approaching, the two chose to remain with their community. They were killed together on Sept. 17, 1597, after gathering in prayer.
Brother Antonio de Badajoz, from the region of Badajoz in Spain, arrived in Florida in 1587. Unlike his companions, he was not a priest but a Franciscan lay brother. Over some 10 years among the Guale, he mastered their language and served as interpreter and catechist. His life reminds us that holiness, mission and even martyrdom are callings open to every vocation in the Church.
Father Francisco de Veráscola, born in 1564 in Spain’s Basque country, joined the Franciscan mission in Florida in the 1590s. He ministered at Santo Domingo de Asao, traditionally associated with present-day St. Simons Island. His tie to Florida was especially direct: he was killed on Sept. 18, 1597, as he returned by canoe from St. Augustine, where he had traveled on mission business.
The deaths of these five Franciscans must also be understood within the complex history of Spanish colonization and its encounters with the Indigenous peoples of the region. Yet, their personal witness reveals a profound missionary commitment. They left their homeland, embraced unfamiliar cultures, learned Indigenous languages, and in the end gave their lives rather than abandon their faith and the people entrusted to their care.
On Jan. 27, 2025, Pope Francis formally recognized their martyrdom in odium fidei, “in hatred of the faith,” opening the way to their beatification. Fittingly, the celebration falls during the 800th anniversary of the death of St. Francis of Assisi, whose Gospel spirit inspired their missionary vocation.
For Catholics in Florida, the Georgia Martyrs are not distant figures belonging only to another state’s history. They are part of our own spiritual heritage. Their missionary journeys began in historic La Florida, their work was bound to St. Augustine, and their blood helped lay the foundations of the Catholic faith in the American Southeast. Moreover, the beatification of the Georgia Martyrs places us in the way to start preparing for another significant recognition of the powerful testimony of martyrs in the birth of Catholicism in Florida and in the United States: that of the 58 pioneers who sacrificed their lives in the name of our Lord in the 1500s, known as the “Florida Martyrs.” I ask all of you to start praying for that upcoming martyrdom and beatification cause.
With great joy, I extend my heartfelt congratulations to my brother bishop, the Most Reverend Stephen D. Parkes, and to the clergy, religious and faithful of the Diocese of Savannah on this extraordinary blessing. For generations, the Church in Georgia has kept alive the memory of these holy friars, and through decades of prayer, scholarship and perseverance, their cause has now reached this joyful milestone. We in Florida rejoice with you, united in gratitude for martyrs who belong to both our histories and to the whole Church in America.
As the Church prepares to honor these five new Blesseds, may their witness renew our commitment to evangelization, strengthen our fidelity to the Gospel and remind us that the story of Catholicism in Florida is also a story of missionary courage, sacrifice and holiness.
Bishop Manuel de Jesús Rodríguez, JCD
