About the Five Georgia Martyrs:
In the late sixteenth century, a full two centuries before Bl. Junipero Serra preached to the Native Americans along the West Coast, six Spanish Franciscans came to what is now the Georgia coast to minister to the native people called the Guale. They labored with remarkable courage and devotion to evangelize native peoples of the region, and tens of thousands were baptized, catechized, and provided the sacraments.
The Spanish Franciscans Pedro de Corpa, Blas Rodríguez de Cuacos, Miguel de Añón, Antonio de Badajoz and Francisco de Veráscola were killed between Sept. 14 and Sept. 17, 1597, after Father de Corpa told a young Indigenous man, Juanillo, who was heir to a Guale chiefdom, that as a baptized Christian he could not take a second wife. Juanillo and a band of his men killed the priest with a stone hatchet at the Mission of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Tolomato, which is near modern-day Eulonia, Georgia. They then went after the other Franciscan missionaries living and ministering along the Georgia coast.
The first proof of the five Franciscans’ readiness to give their lives for the Lord was their choice “to leave Spain and set out as missionaries to a land and among peoples still partly unknown. The five were aware of the risks and dangers associated with their apostolate also in relation to their safety,” the dicastery said.
“Moved by a genuine spirit of love for Christ and service to the church, they accepted to be sent on mission to the North American territory,” it said.
About The Monument to the Five Venerable Georgia Friars in Darien, Georgia:
On October 9, 2021 Bishop Stephen D. Parkes of the Diocese of Savannah blessed a new bronze sculpture of the five venerable friars, who are known as the Georgia Martyrs, at Nativity of Our Lady Catholic Church in Darien, Georgia.
A work of Timothy Schmalz, the statue is based on a painting depicting Friar Pedro de Corpa, and his companion friars, Blas, Miguel, Antonio and Francisco.
Schmalz is best known for his “homeless Jesus” installed in several cities worldwide and for “Angels Unawares,” a life-size sculpture depicting migrants and refugees crowded on a boat installed in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican.
You can learn more about the cause for canonization of the Five Georgia Friars here.
Traveling to The Monument to the Five Venerable Georgia Friars in Darien, Georgia:
The monument is located on the grounds of Nativity of Our Lady Catholic Church in Darien, Georgia….about 50 miles south of Savannah.
Address: 1000 North Way, Darien, GA 31305
Phone: +1 (912) 437-4750
Click here for the official website of Nativity of Our Lady Catholic Church in Darien, Georgia.