On July 9 the Church celebrates the feast of the 120 Martyrs of China. Religious persecution has a long history in China, especially persecution of Christians, thousands of whom have died for their faith in the last millennium. On October 1, 2000, Pope John Paul II canonised 120 men, women, …

Saints Perpetua and Felicity were martyrs who died for the faith around the year 203. St. Perpetua was a young, well-educated, noblewoman and mother living in the city of Carthage in North Africa. Her mother was a Christian and her father was a pagan. In terms of her faith, Perpetua …

Just after Christmas, the Catholic Church remembers its first martyr, and one of its first deacons, Saint Stephen. Roman Catholics celebrate his feast Dec. 26, while Eastern Catholics honor him one day later. In the Acts of the Apostles, St. Luke praises St. Stephen as “a man full of faith …

The September Martyrs are a group of 191 faithful Christians who were martyred at the hands of the French Revolution on September 2 and 3, 1792. After refusing to take an oath in support of the civil consititution of the clergy, an act condemned by the Vatican which placed Catholic …

By CNA Staff Chiavenna, Italy, Jun 6, 2021 / 11:00 am An Italian nun who was stabbed to death by three teenage girls was beatified on Sunday, after Pope Francis declared her a martyr, killed “in hatred of the faith.” Sr. Maria Laura Mainetti was beatified on June 6, the …

“Long live Christ the King and the Virgin of Guadalupe!” This was the slogan of the “Cristero” uprising in the 1920’s against the anti-Catholic government of Mexico which had instituted and enforced laws against the Church in an absurd attempt to eradicate the Catholic faith in Mexico, even going so …

A former lawyer who left his profession to become a Capuchin Franciscan priest, Saint Fidelis of Sigmaringen has his liturgical memorial on April 24. Fidelis’ life bridged the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, a time of religious conflict in Western Europe. He died at the hands of a mob while preaching …

by Courtney Mares Vatican City, Dec 22, 2020 / 06:30 am MT (CNA).- Pope Francis has recognized the martyrdom of Rosario Livatino, a judge who was brutally killed by the mafia on his commute to work at a courthouse in Sicily thirty years ago. The Vatican Congregation for the Causes …

by Perry West Denver Newsroom, Oct 16, 2020 / 03:01 am MT (CNA).- At a Mass on Monday said in thanksgiving for the cause for canonization of the martyrs of Spanish colonial Florida, the Bishop of Pensacola-Tallahassee emphasized that martyrs were not just in the Old World, but in what …

CNA Staff, Oct 13, 2020 / 03:31 am MT (CNA).- A German archdiocese said Monday that it is preparing to open the beatification cause of a member of the White Rose anti-Nazi resistance group. A spokeswoman told CNA Deutsch, CNA’s German-language news partner, Oct. 12 that the Archdiocese of Munich …