ST BERARD OF CARBIO AND COMPANIONS, RELIGIOUS AND MARTYRS

ST BERARD OF CARBIO AND COMPANIONS, RELIGIOUS AND MARTYRS - 16 JANUARY

SAINT BERARD OF CARBIO AND COMPANIONS, RELIGIOUS AND MARTYRS

Saint Berard (Berardus, also called Beraldus or Gerardus), a native of Carbio in Umbria, and his companions Otto (Otho), a priest, Peter, of the city S. Geminiano in Florentine, Adjutus (Adjutor), and Accursius (Accurtius) were disciples of Saint Francis of Assisi. In 1219 he sent them to proclaim the Good News of Jesus Christ in Mauretania for the benefit the of souls of the Mohammedans who lived there.

When the holy friars arrived at Mesquita and began to preach, they were taken to Morocco. There they continued to announce the Gospel of Jesus Christ and even performed miracles in His name for the edification of the amazed crowd that thronged the square where they preached. The authorities, for fear of these holy friars winning people over, had them inhumanly scourged, and doused with boiling oil and vinegar. The martyrs, while being tortured in this way, experienced heavenly consolations. Finally, their heads were split, their bodies hacked to pieces, and thrown into the fields, from where, by another heavenly miracle, no Muslims, but only followers of the Lord Jesus Christ, could move them. Their mortal remains were duly taken away by Christians and honourably buried in Coimbra, Portugal. To this day they can be visited there in the Church of the Holy Cross. The time of their martyrdom falls in the year 1220. These men were the first fruits of the martyrs of the Order of St Francis. Their names are written both in the general Roman Martyrology* and in the special ones for the three orders, then for the Conventuals and Capuchins. Pope Sixtus IV confirmed their public veneration in 1481.

(Information from Stadler's Complete Encyclopedia of Saints, Volume 1, Augsburg, 1858, pp. 445-46)

*A hagiography source used by the authors

Stadler's Complete Encyclopedia of Saints - Sources and Abbreviations

PRAYER:

Grant, we beseech you, almighty God, that we who know how courageously your holy martyrs Berard and Companions confessed the faith, may experience their goodness as they intercede for us with you. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Sources of these articles (in the original German): books.google.co.uk, de-academic.com, zeno.org, openlibrary.org

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