Catholic Martyrdom in Church History


Excerpts from Church History, by Father John Laux, M.A.

1646 - St. Isaac Jogues martyred by Mohawks

1650 - mission in Virgainia for Catholic Cavaliers fleeing from Cromwell's persecution.

1680 - Indian revolts destroy New Mexico missions

1692 - Mass tolerated in private homes

1724 - Jesuit Missions in Main destroyed; Fr. Sebastian Rale martyred

1733 - St. Joseph's Church established in Philadelphia [my note: during my visit to Philadelphia, I learned that the entrance to St. Joseph's was only accessed from a small alley, so as to escape notice from the infamous Know Nothing Party members]

1744 - The Alamo, the Franciscan church, hospital, and convent erected in San Antonia, was later taken over by Mexico

1755 - Acadians deported and dispersed through English colonies

1773 - suppression of the Society of Jesus

1776 - Fr. John Carroll of Maryland goes with Franklin, Chase, and Charles Carroll to Canada, in vain attempt to win back the sympathy of the Canadians alienated by the protest of John Jay and other anti-Catholic bigots against the Quebec Act which gave justice to the Catholics of Canada

1793 - Several thousand Catholics, among them a number of Negroes, come to the U.S.A. from San Domingo and other West India islands to escape the effects of the French Revolution and the Negro insurrections

1818 - Connecticut Constitution establishes religious freedom

1834 - the beginning of the ruin of the California missions

1835 - Article in the North Carolina Constitution disqualifying Catholics from holding office repealed

1837 - Third Provincial Council of Baltimore solemnly protests against the fanatical spirit of persecution aroused in the country by the rapid growth of the Church. Anti-Catholic calumnies are refuted

1842 - Rt. Rev. John Hughes abolishes trusteeism, defeats the Native American (Nativism) and Know Nothing Movements, and overthrows the Public School Society which was subversive of Catholic interests

1844 - St. Michael's Church in Philadelphia burnt during an anti-Catholic riot

1845-1850 - famine in Ireland and political upheavals in Germany bring increase in Catholic immigrants

1853 - visit of Archbishop Bedini, papal nuncio at the Court of Brazil, gives occasion to scandalous outbreaks of anti-Catholic bigotry. An attempt is made on his life at Cincinnati. The Know Nothing movement gathers strength. Catholic churches are burned, Catholic citizens killed and other outrages are committed in various states between 1851-1855

1873-1878 - the "Kulturkampf" in Germany drives many zealous priests and religious to U.S.A.

1877 - political disabilities of Catholics removed in New Hampshire

1879 - Presidant Grant inaugurates an Indian policy unfavorable to Catholic Indians

1894 - the anti-Catholic activity of the American Protective Association (APA) reaches its height

1927 - Catholics of Mexico are subjected to a barbarous persecution. The American Hierarchy solemnly protest and generously aid the victims: bishops, priests, and nuns

1929 - persecution of Catholics in Mexico ends

1935 - Catholic Students' Mission Crusade and their friends of the Diocese of Richmond erect a memorial to the 8 Spanish Jesuit priests, Brothers, and Scholastics martyred in 1571

1940 - persecution of the Church by Nazis extended to the German-occupied countries

1942 - Vatican announces that 86 German Franciscans had died for their country or were MIA

1943 - New Hampshire House of Representatives kills a bill to permit public school children to take an hour off each week for religious education

1943 - During "Polish Week" in observance of the 4th anniversary of the German invasion of Poland, President Roosevelt repeats his assurance of "justice and liberation" for the Poles, and Archbishop Mooney, of Detroit, declares, "In the face of certain martyrdom Poland kept her soul, and to remember Poland surely will help us to keep our soul."
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