Chiara Corbella
The Italian wife and mother died in 2012 aged 28. She had three children with her husband Enrico Petrillo; two died shortly after birth, and while Corbella was pregnant with the third, Francesco, she contracted cancer. She refused medical treatment in case it endangered her unborn son. Many witnesses spoke of Chiara’s piety, steadfastness and joyfulness throughout her life. Her husband asked her at the end: “Chiara, is this Cross really sweet like the Lord says?” He says that his wife “smiled at me, and with a frail voice replied: ‘Yes, Enrico. It is very sweet.’” Articles written since her death have referred to her as a saint.
John Bradburne
Murdered in Rhodesia in 1979 by Robert Mugabe’s guerrillas, Bradburne has a unique place in English Catholic history – a poet, third order Franciscan, lifelong wanderer and heroic servant of the sick. During his travels, he came across a leper colony in what is now Zimbabwe and spent the last decade of his life there. He tended to the lepers, taught them the faith (as well as Latin and Gregorian chant), and spent the rest of his time on prayer and poetry. Bradburne had hoped to die a martyr, but his death was probably the result of false accusations of espionage, rather than odium fidei. Today the John Bradburne Memorial Society helps fund the colony and considers him a saint.
Bishop Enrique Angelelli
The Argentine bishop, assassinated in 1976 during the Dirty War, is already a Servant of God: that is, his Cause for canonisation is open. With the new regulations, his mysterious death is likely to be closely examined. Bishop Angelelli exemplified the Church’s support for workers’ rights. Having been appointed Bishop of La Rioja, he encouraged miners, farm workers and many others to unionise, and worked to appropriate unused land. Landowners disliked him; so did the military regime, which launched a brutal crackdown on politically active clergy. Bishop Angelelli’s death in an alleged car accident has been declared a murder by the Argentine courts.
Ignacio Echeverría
The “skateboard hero” of the London Bridge terror attacks was a committed Catholic known for his solidarity with the poor and the weak. The 39-year-old Echeverría, who had moved to London to work for HSBC’s anti-money-laundering team, was well known in the Catholic community in Madrid. Whether any of them have proposed his Cause is unclear. But his last moments demonstrate how a Catholic’s death might give honour to the faith without being a martyrdom. He saw a terrorist stabbing a woman, and rushed to defend her using his skateboard. In the ensuing fight, he was fatally stabbed with a kitchen knife.
Fr Miguel Pajares
The first European victim of the Ebola virus was a Spanish missionary. Fr Miguel Pajares, who trained as a nurse, had previously worked in Ireland and Ghana for the Brothers of St John of God, the order he joined at the age of 12. His last foreign posting was at a Liberian hospital, after which the 75-year-old was expected to retire back to Spain. Liberia was one of the countries most seriously affected by the Ebola outbreak in 2014-15: nearly 5,000 were killed. The director of Fr Pajares’s hospital, Dr Patrick Nshamdze, died after contracting the virus. Fr Pajares succumbed in turn after caring for Dr Nshamdze. His countrymen in Toledo remember “a wonderful man”.
Sister Lukrecija Mamić
Sister Lukrecija, a nun of the Handmaids of Charity, was killed in Burundi in 2011 – for no reason other than some thieves raided the convent where the Croatian nun was living. They killed her immediately. A lay volunteer, Francesco Bazzani, was also murdered after the robbers took him hostage. Neither could be considered a martyr: they were not murdered for professing Christ. But they had gone to a highly dangerous part of the world, one of the most poverty-ravaged and violent countries that one could end up in, simply to live out their Catholic vocation of love. If miracles were attributed to them, theirs would be a good test case for the new rules.
Areas of Catholic Herald business are still recovering post-pandemic.
However, we are reaching out to the Catholic community and readership, that has been so loyal to the Catholic Herald. Please join us on our 135 year mission by supporting us.
We are raising £250,000 to safeguard the Herald as a world-leading voice in Catholic journalism and teaching.
We have been a bold and influential voice in the church since 1888, standing up for traditional Catholic culture and values. Please consider donating.