Our Capuchin calendar that reminds of of feastdays and solemnities for our Capuchin Franciscan communities throughout the world keeps expanding!
Sadly, the pandemic's resurgence has delayed the Beatification of our brother Capuchin Martyrs of Manresa (Catalonia) scheduled for Saturday, November 14th. Friars Benet of Santa Coloma de Gramenet, Domingo of Sant Pere from Riudebitlles and Josep Oriol from Barcelona were killed in 1936. All of them were members of the community in Manresa, the novitiate of the Catalonian Province in Spain at the time the area of the friary was overrun by Communist forces as part of the fighting in the Spanish Civil War. You can read about their heroic witness here.
Meanwhile, the stage has been set for the eventual beatification of our Capuchin martyrs of Lebanon. On October 28th, the Holy See promulgated the decree recognizing the martyrdom of friars Leonard Melki and Thomas Saleh of the Custody of the Near East (Lebanon and Syria). They were part of the persecutions and hostilities Christians experienced throughout the Ottoman Empire at the early part of the 20th century. They were killed in Turkey in 1915 and 1917.