The beatification process for the three slain friars launched in 1932 over two centuries following their deaths; the trio were beatified in Rome on 20 November 1988 upon confirmation that the trio died "in odium fidei" (in hatred of the faith).[3][4][7]
Life
Johannes Laurentius Weiss
Johannes Laurentius Weiss was born in Konnersreuth in Bavaria in 1675 as the second of six children.[3]
He left Cairo along the Nile River on 14 January 1705 - with seven companions that Father Giuseppe da Gerusalemme was leading - in order to go to Ethiopia to begin their mission. In June the team arrived in Debba in Sudan but were unable to continue due to tensions and so on 21 August took refuge in Allefun. The team remained there until being called to Sennar on 31 March 1708 but over time some of the members died or returned home which left Weiss alone with Giuseppe and with Michele Pio Fasoli.[7] But there was a setback upon Giuseppe's death in May 1709 which later forced Weiss and Fasoli to return to Cairo on 30 June 1710. On 20 April 1711 the officials of Propaganda Fide in Rome asked the two to attempt to travel to Ethiopia once more prompting their departure on 3 November 1711 alongside Antonio Francesco Marzorati; the trio arrived in Gondar on 20 July 1912 to have the emperor Yostos receive them.[7]
He entered the Order of Friars Minor in Lugano in Switzerland on 5 March 1792 and upon his admittance selected the name "Samuele".[4] Propaganda Fide recognized him on 21 January 1704 to be one of their missionaries after he completed a training course to prepare him for his future work.[1]
Antonio Francesco Marzorati
Antonio Francesco Marzorati was born in Varese on 10 September 1670. He arrived first in Cairo on 10 September 1701 after completing a course to prepare him for his work in the foreign missions.
Deaths
Emperor Dawit III (r. 1716–21) claimed that all Catholics were heretics and ordered their immediate persecution; he did not agree with the policies of his predecessor Yostos (r. 1711–16) who allowed missionaries to teach and operate in a small hospital even though he forbade them to preach.[6] The three were arrested on 2 March 1716 and were pressured to renounce the Council of Chalcedon and convert to the Ethiopian Orthodox Church; the trio refused and were publicly stoned to death on 3 March as a result.[3]
Beatification
The beatification process opened under the Cardinal Archbishop of ViennaTheodor Innitzer in November 1932 and who closed the process in March 1943. It was formally opened in Rome on 25 July 1933, granting the friars the title of Servants of God.[8] The official Positio dossier was submitted to the Congregation for the Causes of Saints in Rome in 1984 with historians approving the cause on 16 May 1984 after having assessed the circumstances of their deaths in light of the historical context. Theologians also approved the cause on 15 December 1987 as did the C.C.S. members on 1 March 1988.
The trio were approved for beatification on 28 March 1988 after Pope John Paul II confirmed the three friars were killed "in odium fidei" (in hatred of the faith) and beatified the missionaries on 20 November 1988 in Saint Peter's Basilica.[7]
The current postulator for this cause is the Franciscan priest Giovangiuseppe Califano.
