An Italian priest who died in a Nazi concentration camp and two victims of Soviet-bloc regimes during the Cold War were among those recognised as martyrs by Pope Francis.
Pope Francis likewise recognised the martyrdom of Romanian Father Vladimir Ghika and Hungarian Salesian Brother Stephen Sandor, who were killed by their country’s communist regimes, in 1954 and 1953, respectively. The decrees prepare the way for the martyrs’ beatification, probably later this year.
FULL LIST
Vatican City, 28 March 2013 (VIS) – Yesterday, Wednesday 27 March 2013, the Holy Father received in audience Cardinal Angelo Amato S.D.B., prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints. During the course of the audience the pontiff authorised the dicastery to promulgate the decrees concerning the following causes::
MIRACLE
- attributed to the intercession of the Venerable Servant of God Maria Theresia Bonzel (nee Regina Christine Wilhelmine Bonzel), foundress of the Sisters of St. Francis of Perpetual Adoration in Olpe, Germany. Born in Olpe on 17 September 1830 and died there on 6 February 1905.
MARTYRDOM
- Servant of God Manuel Basulto y Jimenez, bishop of Jaen, Spain, and five Companions; killed in hatred of the faith in Spain between 1936 and 1937.
- Servant of God Jose Maximo Moro Briz and four Companions, priests of the Diocese of Avila, Spain; killed in hatred of the faith in Spain in 1936.
- Servant of God Vladimir Ghika, priest of the archdiocese of Bucharest, Romania. Born in Istanbul, Turkey on 25 December 1873 and killed in hatred of the faith in Bucharest on 16 May 1954.
- Servant of God Joaquin Jovani Marin and 14 Companions from the Diocesan Labourer Priests of the Sacred Heart of Jesus; killed in hatred of the faith in Spain between 1936 and 1938.
- Servant of God Andres from Palazuelo (ne Miguel Francisco Gonzalez-Diez Gonzalez-Nunez), professed priest of the Order of Capuchin Friars Minor, and 31 Companions; killed in hatred of the faith in Spain between 1936 and 1937.
- Servant of God Giuseppe Girotti, professed priest of the Order of Preachers. Born in Alba, Italy, on 19 July 1905 and killed in hatred of the faith in Dachau, Germany, in 1945.
- Servant of God Stefano Sandor, professed religious of the Salesians of Don Bosco. Born in Szolnok, Hungary, on 26 October 1914 and killed in hatred of the faith in Budapest, Hungary, on 8 June 1953.
- Servant of God Rolando Rivi, seminarian of the diocese of Reggio Emilia-Guastalla. Born in Castellarano, Italy, on 7 January 1931 and killed in hatred of the faith in Piane di Monchio, Italy, on 13 April 1945.
HEROIC VIRTUES
- Servant of God Eladio Mozas Santamera, diocesan priest and founder of the Josephine Sisters of the Most Holy Trinity. Born in Miedes de Atienza, Spain, on 18 February 1837 and died in Plasencia, Spain, on 18 March 1897.
- Servant of God Manuel Aparici Navarro, diocesan priest. Born in Madrid, Spain, on 11 December 1902 and died there on 28 August 1964.
- Servant of God Moises Lira Serafin, professed priest of the Missionaries of the Holy Spirit and founder of the Missionaries of Charity of Mary Immaculate. Born in Zacatlan, Mexico, on 16 September 1893 and died in Mexico City, Mexico on 25 June 1950.
- Servant of God Generoso of the Crucified (ne Angelo Fontanarosa), professed priest of the Congregation of the Passion of Jesus Christ. Born in Vetralla, Italy, on 6 November 1881 and died in Mascalucia, Italy, on 9 January 1966.
- Servant of God Olinto Marella, diocesan priest. Born in Pallestrina, Italy, on 14 June 1882 and died in San Lazzaro di Savena, Italy, on 6 September 1969.
- Servant of God Antoine Kowalczyk, lay brother of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate. Born in Dzierzanow, Poland, on 04 June 1866 and died in Edmonton, Canada on 10 July 1947.
- Servant of God Silvia Cardoso Ferreiro da Silva, laywoman. Born in Pacos de Ferreira, Portugal, on 26 July 1882 and died there on 2 November 1950.
In the original among the commentaries there is one I want to repost in full:
Benedict Carter I'd like to share a story about one martyr for the Catholic Faith who I was privileged to know a little. She didn't lose her life for Christ but suffered grievously for her Catholic Faith at the hands of the Church's sworn enemies.
It is the Winter of 1941. The German armies threaten Moscow. The cold is the worst for many decades. In the centre of Moscow, just a stone’s throw from the Kremlin and its surrounding streets is a prison, also the headquarters (it remains so to this day) of one of the most evil organisations in the world’s history. The prison is the Lubyanka, and the organisation is the NKVD (later the KGB).
In one of its underground cells is a girl, a student. Her name is Margarite. Not the usual Russian “Margarita” but “Margarite”. She is the daughter of a Russian father and a Polish mother. She has been arrested for becoming a Catholic.
A clever student, she had started that fateful academic year at MGU (Moscow State University) in the Faculty of Foreign Languages. One day, she walks past the Catholic Church of St. Louis (given to the Catholic diplomats to the Russian Court by Tsarina Catherine II in 1799: as it happens, the church lies just 200 or 300 metres from the Lubyanka). It is the only Catholic Church allowed in Russia by the Soviets. On an impulse truly from God, this girl, brought up all her life as an atheist, walks into the Church and tells the one priest allowed by the Communists that she wishes to become a Catholic. Greatly suspicious of an NKVD provocation, he says “no”, but she comes back and eventually he is persuaded of her genuineness and baptises her.
That night, she tells her best friend in the University dormitory that she has been baptised and the next day she is arrested.
Her best friend had betrayed her to the NKVD. She received eight years in the Camps.
In 2008, during the Summer. I got a call from Father Ryan asking me to assist him at the burial of old Margarite. I know a little of her story, but none of the details. I had met her at Father Ryan’s English Mass in the crypt of the Catholic Cathedral in Moscow several times (a decrepit and nearly blind old lady, always with her devoted friend Svetlana). On one occasion she had looked me in the eyes and held my gaze seemingly forever, searching my soul (I felt that I failed the test). I knew this was a special lady. Her eyes were deep pools of memory and suffering.
On the appointed day, Father and I met at her home. A small Soviet flat. Poorly furnished with the usual Soviet furniture (but scrupulously clean); a few photographs and many books. There were a few people there in all, about four or five. Propped up on two old wooden chairs was the coffin, which was open: Father and I sang the “Salve Regina” and he said a few impromptu prayers. The hearse (a rickety old minibus) arrived and the workers asked us to leave the flat. To get the coffin down the narrow stairwell, they had to take Margarite’s body out of it and put it back in once they have maneuvered the coffin out of the flat. They didn't want us to see them do it.
We boarded the bus and were stuck in traffic for an hour and a half before we reached the cemetery. Once we found the plot, we had to pull out overgrown weeds which obstructed any view of the grave that had been dug. Father blessed the grave with Holy Water and I lit the incense in the thurible. We sang some hymns, Father said a short version of the burial service, and that is that. I felt very tearful.
And so was laid to rest Margarite, a soul who suffered in Stalin’s Camps for her Catholic Faith, which she kept until the day she died.
The fall of the satanic cult of Communism was a happy day for her. Even more, the restoration of the Church in Russia was a day of great joy. She made herself known to the first Catholic Archbishop and was asked to help translate the Novus Ordo into Russian, which she did. She attended Mass every Sunday, whenever her ailments allowed. She and Father Ryan came to know each other and were very fond of each other.
It was a very great honour for me to know this martyr for the Faith, a great honour. Someone who put a human face on all those books I had read about the GuLAG by Solzhenitsyn, Shalamov, Marchenko and others. Someone who had known suffering, true suffering, but who lived her life loving and trusting Our Lord.
May God forgive her her sins, take her into His arms and grant her eternal rest and peace! Of your charity, please pray for the soul of a true Catholic, a Russian lady called Margarite.
