There is no point on the globe which has not some cause for martyrdom at present being examined by the Congregation for the Causes of Saints: this means that martyrdom has been a constant in the history of the Church in the past hundred years. We have traced a geography of persecution and its martyrs in the 20th century.
In 1900 Christian missions in China suffered violent persecution, when the Boxer movement for justice and harmony and the Closed Fists Society bloodied the dawn of the twentieth century. An anti-missionary edict issued on 10 July 1900, in the reign of Empress Tse-Hsi, caused disorders and massacres of Christians. This was followed by an anti-Christian edict issued by viceroy Ju-Sien which resulted in authentic persecution. In the Philippines, a schismatic sect led by Gregory Aglipay, caused a number of martyrs.

In 1904 Spain had its first martyrs of the century in Valencia where two young laymen were martyred by anti-church activists during a religious event. In 1924 in Brazil an anti-clerical revolution led to persecution against the Church. In Tanzania, a group of missionaries was killed in Majimai. In Mexico persecution began with the Revolution in 1911 increased in 1917 and lasted until the 1940s: hundreds were martyred. In Spain (1931-1939) persecution by the Second Republic caused the greatest Christian holocaust since the times of the Roman Empire, more cruel than the French revolution: the martyrs were 13 bishops, 4,184 secular priests, 2,365 Religious men and 283 women religious, altogether 6,832 consecrated persons, not counting thousands of Catholic laity, men and women.

In Germany, Austria, Poland, France and Italy, the Nazi regime started fierce persecution causing hundreds of victims, including bishops, priests, religious and laity. We all know about the persecutions which took place in the Soviet Union, including Ukraine. After the Second World War, Communist persecution was seen in many places and became systematic in Eastern Europe: Albania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Montenegro, Czech republic, Rumania, Russia, Slovakia, Ukraine, Hungary…

Persecution in Africa: northern Africa (Algeria and Libya in the 1980s and 1990s); Central Africa and the Great Lakes region: in Burundi (1989-90), Cameroon, Ethiopia and Eritrea (1980s), Gabon (1977), Equatorial Guinea (1983), Kenya (during persecution by the Mau Mau secret society and more subtle in successive years), Liberia (1989), Nigeria (1995), Rwanda (1994), Sierra Leone (1995), Somalia (1960-64), Uganda (19721995), Zaire (1960-64); in east Africa: Angola (1982-84), Lesotho (1980s), Madagascar (1980s), Mozambique (1985), South Africa (1985), Zimbabwe (1977-79) above all in Sudan, with brutal Islamic persecution which has lasted now for more than thirty years since 1956 up to the present day in different ways and forms.

Central and southern America has lived persecution and violence for religious motives often connected with the struggle for justice and peace in contexts of civil war and social conflict: in Argentina (1976), Bolivia (1980), Brazil (1976-85), Colombia (1991), Ecuador (1987-85), El Salvador (1980s), Guatemala (1980s), Guyana (1979), Haiti (1971), Honduras (1975), Mexico (late nineteen forties), Panama (1989), Peru (1987-91), Puerto Rico (1991), Santo Domingo (1965), Venezuela (1946 e 1991).
In Asia we recall ongoing persecution in China (from 1933 to the present day), North Korea (from 1949 to the present day), India (1949/1995), Indonesia (1944-45, and today also in Timor), Thailand (1930s and 1940s). Others are connected with situations of conflict for example in the Philippines (1976-77/1984-85), Bangladesh (1971-74), Laos (1960-72), Vietnam (1940s and 1970-80). We must add Middle East countries such as Iraq (1915-18) and Lebanon (1975-90), and sneaking persecution in various parts of the Muslim world, above all in Saudi Arabia. In Oceania the most serious episodes were seen in Papua New Guinea in 1942-1943.

Of course cases of martyrdom vary according to the circumstances but fundamentally they all have the same “formal cause”: faith in Jesus Christ and loyalty to Him and his Church. An examination of the circumstances of martyrdom must always keep in mind the historical and political context of the century, and also the context of this modern age beginning with the French Revolution during which we have the first martyrs in the modern sense of the word, those we have just mentioned. Furthermore research must distinguish between war victims and those killed by repression and because of their faith, and avoid confusing Christians who died for the faith with Christians killed in conflict or violence for other reasons. By Fr Fidel Gonzales, Comboni missionary, a teacher at Urban University and a Consultor of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints. (5/5/2000)