Pope pays tribute to Balearic Islands martyrs
October 22, 2026
At the conclusion of his October 21 general audience, Pope Leo XIV paid tribute to 20 martyred diocesan priests who were beatified four days earlier.
“Last Saturday, in Ibiza, Spain, Father Juan Torres Torres and 19 companions, priests from the islands of Ibiza and Formentera, killed in hatred of the faith in the religious persecution of the last century, were beatified,” Pope Leo said to the 30,000 pilgrims in St. Peter’s Square. “Their witness encourages us to make life an offering of love to God and to our brothers.”
Ibiza and Formentera are two of the Balearic Islands. The Dicastery for the Causes of Saints recounts that when Republican forces in the Spanish Civil War took control of the islands in 1936, “all forms of worship were prohibited, the sacraments were banned and the churches suffered systematic looting and burning of furnishings and sacred images.”
The Vatican did not include the Pontiff’s tribute to the martyred priests in its English translation of his remarks.
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