Franciscan Protomartyrs

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Saints Berardo, Ottone, Pietro, Accursio and Adiuto, are the first Franciscan martyrs (Protomartyrs) They died martyred in Marrakech, in the spread of the faith. St. Francis chose them after invoking the Lord and remaining in continual prayer, appreciating their value and qualities to carry out this ministry.

The story tells that they were sent by St rancis to preach to the Muslims and, after an emotional farewell of tears and hugs, and with the excited blessing of the Poverello, that they received moved on their knees, the six left the Porziuncola and left for Spain; on foot, barefoot, without saddlebag, pilgrim beggars of God.

It was the year of 1219, they crossed Spain and Portugal until they reached Muslim Seville, there they were captured and then exiled to Morocco. Here, they continued to preach the Christian faith, for which they were arrested, imprisoned and tortured in Marrakech, until, not wanting to abdicate Christ, the king of the country sentenced them to death. It was before his relics, which were later transferred to Coimbra, where Saint Anthony decided to enter the Franciscan Order.

Steeped in the primitive spirit of Saint Francis, these martyrs embodied the Gospel of Christ, poor and crucified in an exemplary manner. This generation of friars, who experienced the judgments and values ​​of medieval times, lived their Christianity in a heroic way. In the words of Saint Francis himself: "They are the most heroic knights of my Round Table."

There is a very extensive document published by Quaracchi editores, which narrates by eyewitness testimonies, this moment of confirmation of the faith, heroic in these friars; and it is considered one of the best medieval versions. It relates, for example, how some of those martyrs urged wild beasts to tear them to pieces, due to the urgency they had to sign their faith with their blood. Thus, they gave their soul to the Lord on January 16, 1220.

Like Saint Francis, Saint Clare learned of the first martyrdom of some Friars Minor in Morocco and, with the firmness that distinguished her, planned and tried to go to those lands of the infidels to achieve it; but Francisco, more prudent or less idealistic than she, did not consent, also moved by the tears of the sores of San Damiano, who cried when they saw her in that determination and feared losing her.

But that fever of bloody love that he did not approve of in his "little plant," he loved her and encouraged her in his own. Saint Francis is, among the religious Orders, the first founder who includes in his Rule -in his two Rules- a limiting chapter on missions, adding twelve evangelical texts.

From this pronouncement, later, in 1269, 60 Sisters of Saint Clare of the Zawichost monastery, died at the hands of the Tartars, in Poland; in 1268 the inhabitants of the Syrian Antioch monastery were collectively slaughtered, by order of Sultan Melek Saher Bibars I; in 1289 sultan Melek-el-Mansur had the inhabitants of the Tripoli monastery killed; and in 1291, when St John of Acre (Accon or Tolemaida) was taken by the troops of Melek-el-Asheraf, they suffered martyrdom, no less than 74 daughters of Santa Clara; and also the Poor Clares of Spain, already in that century, in 1298, and in the eventful later times, those of the Jaen monastery, in number 20, paid the tribute of their blood for the irruption of the Saracen troops. This feminine missionary ardor continues to this day, ready for the extreme test of love: giving one's life for Him who gave it for us.