Pope authorizes beatification of Lebanese 'founding father', 80 Spanish martyrs
Pope Leo XIV approved six decrees that will allow the beatification of Lebanese Maronite Patriarch Elias Hoyek and 80 martyrs from the Spanish Civil War. The decrees also recognize four new venerables: Salesian missionary Fr. Costantino Vendrame, Discalced Carmelite Brother Jean‑Thierry, Spanish religious Mother María Ana Alberdi Echezarreta, and Capuchin lay brother Fra Nazareno da Pula.
4 months ago
Pope Leo XIV signed six decrees of the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, opening the way for the beatification of the Lebanese Maronite Patriarch Elias Hoyek and 80 martyrs of the Spanish Civil War, while also recognizing four new venerables from Europe and Africa 1 2 3.
The decree acknowledges a miracle from 1965 in which Druze army officer Nayef Abou Assi was healed of chronic spinal disease after dreaming of the late patriarch 2 3.
Hoyek was born in Helta (1843) and became Maronite Patriarch of Antioch in 1899, serving until his death in 1931 1 3.
During World I he used Church resources to feed the starving population of Mount Lebanon and resisted Ottoman pressure to curtail Maronite autonomy 1.
He represented Lebanon at the 1919 Paris Peace Conference and helped secure the creation of Greater Lebanon in 1920, earning the title “founding father” of the nation 1 3.
Pope Francis declared him venerable in 2019; the new miracle now paves the way for his beatification 1 2.
The Vatican recognized the martyrdom of 80 faithful from the Diocese of Santander who were killed “in hatred of the faith” during the 1936‑1937 anti‑Catholic persecution 2 3.
The group includes 67 priests, three Carmelite religious, three seminarians and seven laypeople 2.
Among them is Fr. Francisco González de Córdova, who continued to hear confessions and pray the Rosary while imprisoned aboard a ship‑turned‑jail, and asked to be shot last so he could bless his companions 2.
Their beatification will require a verified miracle attributed to their intercession 2.
Each of these individuals has been declared venerable, meaning the Church has recognized their heroic virtues and will consider them for beatification pending a miracle 1 2 3.
The six decrees illustrate Pope Leo XIV’s focus on honoring both historical figures who shaped national identities (Hoyek) and those who suffered persecution for their faith (Spanish martyrs).
The inclusion of venerables from diverse continents underscores the universal character of contemporary sainthood causes 1 2 3.*
Examine how the Church’s beatification of diverse martyrs shapes Catholic identity
The Church’s beatification of diverse martyrs—men and women from many cultures, states of life, and even (in some initiatives) other Christian denominations—forms Catholic identity in three linked ways: it defines what holiness looks like, anchors that holiness in Christ and the Church’s worship, and turns martyr-memory into a lived, missionary “communion” for today.
Beatification is not merely a historical commemoration; it is a Church act that publicly recognizes a witness as fitting for veneration and for the edification of the faithful. In the case of martyrs, that recognition highlights that the martyrs’ lives and deaths are not random tragedies, but a Christian “reading” of reality: they show what it means to remain faithful even when death is near.
This is why the Church’s contemporary emphasis on beatifying/recognizing many kinds of martyrs (not only clergy or only one social group) matters for identity: it portrays holiness as universal, not restricted to a narrow subset of people.
Pope Francis notes that recent years have seen an increase in beatifications/canonizations of people from “different states of life,” naming married men and women, the celibate, priests, consecrated men and women, and laypeople, including families.
He connects this to Gaudete et exsultate’s vision that these saints are part of the “holy faithful people of God” and are “next door,” living charity in ordinary communities and even in their limitations and faults.
Identity impact: When the Church recognizes martyrs across family life, ordination, and lay conditions, Catholic identity becomes:
A second dimension is deeply theological: martyrdom is presented as something that belongs inside the Church’s unity and worship—especially the Eucharist.
Liturgical scholarship on the early Church’s “depositing of martyrs’ relics” explains that theological reasons included the assimilation of the martyrs to “Jesus crucified,” whose self-surrender and forgiveness the martyrs “made their own.”
It also links the martyrs’ death (their sacrificial offering of life) to the eucharistic celebration, described as the ritual sacrifice of Christ’s death.
A study of martyr accounts emphasizes that martyr actions “are oriented away from the self” toward Christ and toward the Church—the Body of Christ—so that the Church is strengthened by the martyr’s witness unto death.
It further describes how the martyr becomes a “mediating” sign of Christ’s reality in the world (using Eucharistic imagery such as being “ground” into “pure bread” and a scent compared to “bread baking”).
Identity impact: Beatifying “diverse martyrs” therefore shapes Catholic identity not only as an ethical lesson (“be brave”) but as a sacramental ecclesiology: the Church recognizes that holiness culminates in a communion with Christ crucified, and that this communion is celebrated and preserved within the Church’s sacramental life.
Another key element of Catholic identity is moral clarity: martyrdom publicly demonstrates that certain actions are incompatible with fidelity to God’s love and commandments.
A source summarizing John Paul II’s teaching in Veritatis Splendor presents martyrdom as a witness to the “inviolability of the moral order,” bearing “splendid witness both to the holiness of God’s law and to the inviolability of the personal dignity of man.”
It also states that martyrdom rejects the idea that, “even in ‘exceptional’ conditions,” one might attribute “human meaning” to an act that is morally evil—declaring instead that the moral evil remains false and illusory even when survival is at stake.
The same teaching presents martyrdom as “an outstanding sign of the holiness of the Church,” and as a “solemn proclamation and missionary commitment usque ad sanguinem so that the splendour of moral truth may be undimmed.”
Identity impact: Recognizing martyrs from diverse backgrounds deepens Catholic identity in two ways at once:
Beatification of martyrs also shapes identity through how the Church situates martyr-memory in a wider Christian horizon—without dissolving Catholic claims about recognition and veneration.
John Paul II teaches that the Church recommends safeguarding martyr-memory, and that this gesture has an “ecumenical character and expression,” calling martyr-commemoration a convincing form of ecumenism: the “ecumenism of the saints and of the martyrs.”
He adds that, in the martyrs, the Church venerates Christ who was “at the origin of their martyrdom and of their holiness.”
Pope Francis established a “Commission for New Martyrs — Witnesses of the Faith” with a mandate to gather documented testimonies “up to the shedding of blood,” extending research “not only [to] the Catholic Church, but… to all Christian denominations.”
He clarifies the intention is not to establish new criteria for canonical ascertainment but to continue identifying those killed “simply because they are Christians.”
In a later address, Francis states: “With martyrdom there is equality.” He illustrates this by noting martyrs in different Christian traditions (including Orthodox and Anglicans) and that the Church “takes them all as martyrs.”
Identity impact: Catholic identity becomes more visibly historical and catholic (universal): the Church remembers Christ’s witnesses across time, cultures, and ecclesial communities, while still understanding the Church’s own role in discernment and recognition.
Finally, beatification shapes identity because martyr-recognition is portrayed as a way of reading the present age through the Paschal mystery.
In the 2023 foundation of the new-martyrs commission, Francis explains that martyrs are “witnesses of the hope that comes from faith in Christ” and that hope keeps alive the conviction “that good is stronger than evil,” because God in Christ has conquered sin and death.
He also highlights how martyrs flourish “even today,” including bishops, priests, consecrated persons, and lay people—offering the “supreme proof of charity.”
In 2025, Leo XIV frames contemporary witness as “unarmed hope,” stating that martyrs’ deaths continue to spread the Gospel and that “no one can silence their voice or erase the love they have shown.”
Identity impact: When the Church beatifies diverse martyrs, it tells Catholics that the Christian story does not end at violence; it continues as hope active in history—a hope that interprets suffering in Paschal light and generates charity resilient to hatred and war.
Beatifying diverse martyrs shapes Catholic identity by making the Church’s self-understanding concrete: holiness is for the whole people of God, not a narrow segment; martyr-witness is integrated into Christ’s Eucharistic communion with the Church; it guards the inviolability of moral truth even under extreme pressure; it strengthens Catholic universality through an ecumenism of saints and martyrs; and it turns the memory of witnesses into Paschal hope for the present age.