Georgia martyrs, slain for defending marriage, to be beatified in Savannah this October
February 20, 2026
» Continue to this story on National Catholic Register
CWN Editor's Note: Five Spanish Franciscan friars who were slain in 1597 in what is now the State of Georgia will be beatified in Savannah in October.
“Conflict arose when an heir to a Guale chiefdom, a young Indigenous man named Juanillo, sought to take a second wife as was the Guale custom,” the National Catholic Register reported. One of the friars “told him that as a baptized Christian, he couldn’t have multiple wives and that he would oppose his succession as chief if he persisted. In response, Juanillo killed the priest with a stone hatchet.”
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