Five Georgia Martyrs beatified in Savannah, the first beatification in the American South
Editorial illustration — Press Pass USAFive Spanish Franciscan friars killed on Georgia's coast in 1597 were beatified Saturday in Savannah, in the first beatification ever held in Georgia and in the American South, before a crowd of about 10,000 people at the Savannah Convention Center.
Cardinal Frank Leo of Toronto, acting as papal delegate for Pope Leo XIV, presided over the 11 a.m. Mass on October 31 and proclaimed Pedro de Corpa, Blas Rodríguez de Cuacos, Miguel de Añon, Antonio de Badajoz and Francisco de Veráscola — known together as the Georgia Martyrs — blessed. Archbishop Gregory J. Hartmayer of Atlanta read Pope Leo's apostolic letter in English, and Archbishop Joan-Enric Vives i Sicília read it in Spanish.
The letter, signed in Rome on September 30, 2026, called the friars "unconquered heralds of Christ" who "placed the saving truth of the Gospel before their own safety," and set September 22 as their liturgical memorial. The Church had recognized their martyrdom in January 2025, when Pope Francis authorized the decree declaring they died in hatred of the faith.
The five friars were ministering at Spanish missions along the coast and barrier islands of present-day Georgia when they were killed between September 14 and 17, 1597, during the Guale Uprising. According to the Diocese of Savannah, Father Pedro de Corpa told Juanillo, a baptized Guale heir, that he could not take a second wife under Church teaching — the stand that led to the friars' deaths.
The beatification was only the second to take place in the United States this year, after Blessed Fulton J. Sheen was beatified in September in St. Louis, and among only a handful ever held on American soil. The official beatification image, a painting by Savannah artist Jared Seff chosen from roughly 100 entries, was unveiled during the Mass, and those attending received a prayer card and a medal depicting the five friars.
On Sunday, November 1, the solemnity of All Saints, the celebration continued with a Mass of thanksgiving at the Cathedral Basilica of St. John the Baptist in Savannah, presided over by Archbishop Hartmayer, who served as bishop of Savannah from 2011 to 2020.
"The Church does not 'make' saints; she recognizes them," Hartmayer said, adding that the martyrs who "gave their lives in 1597 on the shores of Brunswick and Darien, St. Simons Island and St. Catherines Island" are now blessed. "They are on their way to being saints, saints of the Church, and we can pray through their intercession now, as they are blessed, for our own needs, for the needs of others," he said.
In Rome on Sunday, Pope Leo drew attention to the Georgia Martyrs after praying the Angelus in St. Peter's Square. "Originally from Spain, they responded generously to the Lord's call to evangelize the peoples of the Americas, even to the point of giving their lives," he said. "Let us invoke the intercession of these martyrs for all missionaries of the Gospel."
Sources: OSV News via The Catholic Sun (Nov. 1, 2026); OSV News via The Florida Catholic (Nov. 1, 2026); Savannah Morning News via savannahnow.com (Nov. 1, 2026); Vatican Angelus text (Nov. 1, 2026).
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