(OSV News) ─ On Oct. 31, the Georgia Martyrs ─ five 16th-century Spanish Franciscan missionaries who served the indigenous Guale people of what is now Georgia ─ will be beatified.
Ahead of the beatification Mass in Savannah, Georgia, OSV News spoke with Cardinal Frank Leo of Toronto, who will preside at the liturgy, on the significance of the martyrs' example and witness.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
OSV News: What can modern Catholics learn from the Georgia Martyrs about living out the universal call to holiness and sharing their faith with all?
Cardinal Leo: I think a number of things. First, we all really need to take seriously Matthew 28 (verses 16-20), the Great Commission to go make disciples. That's for the entire Church, which is composed of clergy, consecrated persons and the laity, which is the greatest number.
We all have that same command from the Lord Jesus to go make disciples. We're all called to be those missionaries. We're all called to holiness. We're all called to service, as Jesus told us many times in the Gospel, including the night before he died.
It requires a lot of faith to do that, in terms of not only belief or faith in my mind, but in terms of commitment to the Lord, trusting the Lord, being in an unwavering relationship with the Lord. That is key to being able to embrace the great call to holiness.
It also needs to be strengthened and nourished by prayer and the sacraments. Those help us to keep focused, to not give up in the moments of trial and difficulty, and to make the right decision.
Sometimes it just isn't easy, as it wasn't for them (the Georgia Martyrs), to know what to do in a given circumstance -- what to say, what not to say, where to go, where not to go, when to intervene, when not to go to visit a person. All of that requires discernment, which comes from being rooted deeply in the Lord and from prayer and the sacraments.
Today, we need a lot of courage, which is moral strength, and (along with justice, prudence and temperance) one of the four moral, or cardinal, virtues. We're not talking about physical strength: We're talking about spiritual strength to be able to go and make disciples today.
The Georgia Martyrs offered more than self-sacrifice. They brought it to the next level in terms of self-gift. They just didn't take one for the team: "Someone's gotta do it; OK, I'll do it." It was a choice and a decision to make a gift to the Lord by becoming a gift to his people, who needed to know him and to live for him.
The martyrs gifted themselves to others, and to the Guale people, because first they realized that they had been gifted from Jesus. So it was the gift that keeps on giving ─ they "re-gifted," if you will. Through this precious gift of our Catholic faith, which they received from the Lord, and the desire to make disciples, they then became a gift to others. That is more than making a sacrifice ─ which is good in and of itself, but they brought it to the next level.
OSV News: How can modern Catholics keep that sense of gifting themselves in faith, rather than seeking to isolate themselves from, or simply rail against, the brokenness in so much of our world?
Cardinal Leo: What is the goal? To win souls for the Lord, to have them come into the Church as their spiritual home, and to find Christ, grace, brothers and sisters.
It's not (done) by hitting them over the head. It's love. At the end of the day, it is how we love them -- and we love them like Jesus loved them; we love them because of Jesus. That's very different (from the world's understanding of love). We say, "Jesus, I ask you to love them and I love them for you. I love them with my broken, small, limited heart. Help me to love them as you love them. I do it as self-gift, self-sacrifice, martyrdom."
Sometimes it's not easy to love, but I do it out of love for Jesus. That brings a whole different dimension. I know who I'm doing it for, the Lord of lords and the King of kings. Jesus is the reason why I'm here, why we're there, where they (the Georgia Martyrs) went -- his love, and his promise of eternal life.
OSV News: What are some specific ways the Georgia Martyrs manifested that love to the Guale people they served?
Cardinal Leo: They mixed with the people. They went out and lived with them, in a very humble, unassuming way. They entered the villages and they learned their language. They ate their food, they spent their days with them, shared with and taught them the faith, and they were available to them as brothers.
It was a family dimension, and the Church is a family -- the family of God. That, I think, was part of their winning formula. (Authentic missioning) certainly isn't found in arrogance or pride; it's in humility, in the willingness to be of service and the example that when you give of yourself, the light of Christ comes through you.
And that will certainly touch hearts even today, as it did in 16th-century Georgia.
OSV News: How can Catholics balance the witness to faith with respect for other cultures and beliefs?
Cardinal Leo: Adopt a family dynamic; that's No. 1. And No. 2, rather than inculturation, I would speak about interculturality. Where there's a mutual gift of self, there's a mutual appreciation where we can see -- as the Second Vatican Council reminded us ─ there is good, truth and beauty in all cultures. We have to be able to see that with Catholic eyes, the eyes of faith.
OSV News: How can Catholics navigate situations where another's culture truly conflicts with the faith ─ as in the case of the Georgia Martyrs, who were killed after one of them, Father Pedro de Corpa, told the (baptized) Guale youth and chiefdom heir Juanillo that he could not take a customary second wife?
Cardinal Leo: Not everything, mind you, is good, beautiful and true, and polygamy is none of those three. And so the martyrs did what they had to do.
However, it is still very important to make an effort to get to know the people, treating them as brothers and sisters, and telling them about God, our heavenly Father, while appreciating the good, true and beautiful things of their language, culture and history. The martyrs did that, and we need to do that today.
And now we have a digital culture, and cultures and subcultures of young people from different generations ─ Gen Z, Gen X, millennials. We have great migrations, especially from Hispanic, African and Middle Eastern cultures. The beautiful, good and true in these cultures need to be celebrated. All that is true, beautiful and good is a reflection of God, who himself is the ultimate source of these things.
OSV News: Most Catholics, especially in the U.S., are not put to death for their faith. How can they live out the martyrs' example of dying to self?
Cardinal Leo: As followers of Christ, part and parcel of our spirituality is the Paschal mystery. This is what we were baptized into ─ Christ's death and resurrection. Every day we're called to be at 3 o'clock on Good Friday, and every day we're called to be resurrected on Easter Sunday.
We have to live out that movement of death and resurrection every day, many times a day.
Start small, with small actions in the family. It often takes the form of fidelity during trial, when it's easy to pack your bags and say, "Sayonara," but choosing instead to uphold fidelity to our faith, our commitments, our vocation. That in itself is a kind of martyrdom.
Look at your parish, your neighborhood, your town for ways in which, small and not so small, you can witness.
The Holy Spirit was given to us at Pentecost. He's opening doors, blowing winds, making things happen. He's the one who is working, and God is already present where we want to go on mission.
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Gina Christian is a multimedia reporter for OSV News. Follow her on X @GinaJesseReina.
