Tea at Trianon: America’s Earliest Martyrs for Marriage to be Beatified

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Saturday, February 1, 2025

America’s Earliest Martyrs for Marriage to be Beatified

From First Things:

In the late sixteenth century, indigenous Guale Indians murdered five Franciscan friars in missions along the Georgia coast. It’s fair to call them the first martyrs for marriage on American soil, yet very few Catholics have ever heard of them. That changed yesterday morning, when the Vatican announced approval of the decree of martyrdom. Henceforth, they are to be called “Venerables.” The rite of beatification will be celebrated by Bishop Stephen Parkes in the Diocese of Savannah, with details to be announced. These martyrs died defending the sanctity of marriage, which makes their stories even more prescient for our own time.
Centuries before the familiar adobe missions formed along California’s coast, Catholic missionaries sailed to La Florida, a Spanish colony that included present-day Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina. Beginning in 1595, Franciscan friars were stationed in the Guale people’s territory, an area of marshland between the Ogeechee and Altamaha Rivers.

Friar Pedro de Corpa, known for his fluency in the local language, was assigned to Guale headquarters in Tolomato, near present-day Darien, Georgia. Two friars journeyed to a barrier island called St. Catherines—Friar Miguel de Añon, known for his captivating singing voice, and Friar Antonio de Badajoz, a lay brother. Friar Blas Rodríguez headed up the mission in Tupiqui, and Friar Francisco de Veráscola, a young athletic friar from a prominent Spanish family, built a primitive chapel on Asao.

For nearly three years, priests and natives lived in harmony. Archaeology professor John Worth likens the Franciscans to Peace Corps volunteers rather than conquerors. Indeed, archeological evidence unearthed by anthropologist David Hurst Thomas, who led three decades of research on St. Catherines for the American Museum of Natural History, paints a rich, nuanced portrait of symbiosis. Friars learned the Guale language, and the Guale studied Spanish. The Guale engaged in rigorous trade, exporting maize for international luxury goods. Priests embraced local dietary preferences. Indeed, they may have adapted their lives more to Guale traditions than the other way around. Guale culture and Christian practices intermingled. Guale masks adorned the mission, and Guale council houses bore a cross.

But the friars drew the line at compromising the doctrines of the Catholic faith, specifically teachings on marriage and monogamy. This led to an uprising known as “Juanillo’s Revolt” in September 1597. According to The Martyrs of Florida, the 1619 primary account adopted by most scholars, Juanillo, a baptized convert and heir apparent to the Guale chief, approached Fr. Corpa for permission to take a second wife. In Guale culture, wives held most of the wealth, thereby influencing succession. Angry at the friar’s refusal, Juanillo ordered his recruits to strike Fr. Corpa with a wooden club called a macana and display his head on a stake. Fr. Añon and Badajoz refused to abandon their mission even as the news of their brother’s death spread. A few days later, after celebrating Mass and praying for four hours, they too were clubbed to death. The war party proceeded to Tupiqui where they murdered Fr. Rodríguez after he said Mass. Fr. Veráscola, last to die, was killed as he exited his canoe upon returning from St. Augustine with supplies. (Read more.)