SAVANNAH, Georgia — As the screen dropped from behind the altar, thousands of men, women, and children gazed at a large tapestry that showed five men wearing brown tunics and calm expressions.
Some in the crowd of 9,000 cried. They sang “Holy God, We Praise Thy Name,” a traditional hymn with roots dating back to the 4th century.
They were there to pay tribute to Spanish missionaries killed more than 400 years earlier in Georgia, a slaughter that, for Catholics, symbolizes the supreme witness to the truth of Jesus’ teachings, even in the face of death.
The men, who came to be known as the Georgia Martyrs, left Spain in the late 16th century and established missions along the Georgia coast. They ministered to the Indigenous Guale people, thousands of whom embraced Catholicism and were baptized.
The missionaries were killed in a dispute over whether a future Guale chief should be permitted to take a second wife, according to historians of that period.
Catholic teaching says the love between spouses mirrors Christ’s love for his people and forms the foundation for families and healthy societies. The church defines marriage as between one man and one woman, for life. The missionaries stuck with that definition and opposed the future chief’s plans.
The Georgia Martyrs were the first Catholics known to have died defending marriage on American soil, historians say. Their story has particular relevance to Catholics and church leaders in modern times, as more Americans eschew marriage and Catholics increasingly break with church teachings on the topic.
The U.S. marriage rate is at its lowest point in history, and 65 percent of Americans approve of same-sex marriage, which is forbidden by the church (that is lower than the 2022-2023 approval rate of 71 percent). Seven in 10 Catholics live together before marriage, and 28 percent end up divorced.
Like his predecessor, the late Pope Francis, Pope Leo has spoken about the crisis in marriage and family since the beginning of his papacy. In his first audience after cancer surgery last month, Leo called it an “urgent” matter.
The Oct. 31 beatification was only the sixth to occur in the United States, and the first in the American South. Toronto Cardinal Frank Leo, who presided over the ceremony and served as Leo’s emissary, said it provided a catalyst for “renewal within the Church and a most powerful inspiration for each of us.”
The tapestry showing the martyrs was painted by Jared Seff, a sacred artist who converted to Catholicism in 2014, at age 23. He said he wanted to paint the martyrs because he’d already connected with them spiritually; he’d stumbled across their story while doing research for a commissioned painting of other martyrs in Florida.
“Their witness for marriage really grabbed me and spoke to me and pulled me in,” Seff said. “I’m happily married and love my wife dearly and my children.”
Seff said that when he enrolled at the Savannah College of Art and Design, where he’s now a professor, he was drawn to the beauty and transcendence of sacred art.
During an art history class that explored myth, he read the Bible for the first time. He studied to become a Catholic, was confirmed and opened a studio.
Seff said he spent months making the portrait, first taking a “deep dive” into the research, then sketching for weeks before starting to paint.
Some scholars have criticized early European efforts to evangelize and convert Indigenous residents of the New World as coercive. But those who have researched the Franciscans who became the Georgia Martyrs say they were different.
Their Peace Corps-like style “emphasized voluntary assimilation instead of involuntary subjugation,” said John Worth, an archaeology professor at the University of West Florida who has studied the mission system for four decades.
The Guale weren’t enslaved people, Worth said. No Spanish military lived alongside them or the friars. The missionaries ate Guale food and learned their language. The Guale traded surplus crops for Spanish goods and governed their own secular affairs. Until the marriage dispute, both sides lived in peace, Worth said.
“It is condescending to presume Indigenous people were too simple to understand the Catholic faith,” said Father Charles Byrd, a priest who has studied the martyrs and is based near Atlanta.
Efforts to designate the slain missionaries as martyrs began in 1950. The Franciscan Order had been reviewing the history of martyrs within its tradition, and the story of the Georgia Martyrs resonated deeply, so the brothers decided to put their cause forward.
After decades of investigation and vetting in Rome, Francis approved the decree of martyrdom. Then Leo set a date for the beatification, and the Savannah Diocese issued an open call for artists to paint the martyrs’ official portrait.
A committee of clergy, lay Catholics, and Franciscans selected Seff’s entry from a group of four dozen, citing its high artistic quality and strong sense of reverence.
Attendees lined up at the Savannah Convention Center hours before the 11 a.m. ceremony. A 110-member Knights of Columbus honor guard drew their swords and formed a flanking wall; more than 500 priests, bishops, deacons, seminarians, and representatives of other knights’ orders walked past.
The cardinal read a letter from the pope declaring the martyrs “blessed.” Then Seff’s portrait was revealed. From that point on, Catholics could ask the martyrs to pray on their behalf in heaven, according to church teachings.
Seff said the lilies in the foreground of his painting symbolize new birth. The luminous backdrop mimics the Georgia sun. The friars’ serene demeanor matches with historical accounts that they met their deaths with acceptance, he said.
“When I saw people spiritually connecting with something I had made and praying before it, I felt like I was just an instrument of God at that point, totally detached from the work,” Seff said. “If I can make something that can provide people with that extra dimension into their spiritual life, then I feel like I’ve done well with my life.”
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