Georgia Martyrs

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The Georgia Martyrs were five Spanish Franciscan friars killed in September 1597 during an uprising among the Guale people in Spanish Florida, in what is now coastal Georgia, United States. They were Pedro de Corpa, Blas Rodríguez, Miguel de Añon, Antonio de Badajoz and Francisco de Veráscola. Four were priests; Antonio was a lay brother. Traditional accounts connect the killings to a dispute over the missionaries' opposition to polygyny. Subsequent scholarship contextualizes the motives behind these killings within the wider encounter between Guale communities and Spanish authorities. The Catholic Church venerates the five friars as martyrs. They were beatified on 31 October 2026 in Savannah at a ceremony presided over by Cardinal Frank Leo, acting as the representative of Pope Leo XIV.

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