Johannes Laurentius Weiss (

religious name A religious name is a type of given name bestowed for religious purposes, and which is generally used in such contexts. Christianity Catholic Church Baptismal name In baptism, Catholic Church, Catholics are given a Christian name, which should n ...

''Liberat'') and his two companions Michele Pio Fasoli and Antonio Francesco Marzorati (religious name ''Samuele'') were

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

and

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...

priests A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in particular, ...

of the

Order of Friars Minor The Order of Friars Minor (commonly called the Franciscans, the Franciscan Order, or the Seraphic Order; Post-nominal letters, postnominal abbreviation OFM) is a Mendicant orders, mendicant Catholic religious order, founded in 1209 by Francis ...

. All of them were

missionaries A missionary is a member of a religious group who is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Thomas Hale 'On Being a Miss ...

. In 1704 they set off from

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

for

Cairo Cairo ( ; , ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Egypt and the Cairo Governorate, being home to more than 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, L ...

to begin their travel through the

Nile River The Nile (also known as the Nile River or River Nile) is a major north-flowing river in northeastern Africa. It flows into the Mediterranean Sea. The Nile is the longest river in Africa. It has historically been considered the longest river i ...

to reach

Ethiopia Ethiopia, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country located in the Horn of Africa region of East Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the north, Djibouti to the northeast, Somalia to the east, Ken ...

. But the team experienced significant pitfalls: conflicts in Ethiopia slowed them down and forced their return to Cairo though the team succeeded in their second attempt to reach their destination. Finally,

anti-Catholicism Anti-Catholicism is hostility towards Catholics and opposition to the Catholic Church, its clergy, and its adherents. Scholars have identified four categories of anti-Catholicism: constitutional-national, theological, popular and socio-cul ...

was being fomented there under Miaphysite Orthodox

Emperor of Ethiopia The emperor of Ethiopia (, "King of Kings"), also known as the Atse (, "emperor"), was the hereditary monarchy, hereditary ruler of the Ethiopian Empire, from at least the 13th century until the abolition of the monarchy in 1975. The emperor w ...

Dawit III Dawit III ( Ge'ez: ዳዊት), throne name Adbar Sagad (Ge’ez: አድባር ሰገድ), also known as Dawit the Singer was Emperor of Ethiopia from 8 February 1716 to 18 May 1721, and a member of the Solomonic dynasty. He was the son of Iyasu I ...

, who decreed the missionaries, who accepted the

Council of Chalcedon The Council of Chalcedon (; ) was the fourth ecumenical council of the Christian Church. It was convoked by the Roman emperor Marcian. The council convened in the city of Chalcedon, Bithynia (modern-day Kadıköy, Istanbul, Turkey) from 8 Oct ...

, to be nothing more than

heretics Heresy is any belief or theory that is strongly at variance with established beliefs or customs, particularly the accepted beliefs or religious law of a religious organization. A heretic is a proponent of heresy. Heresy in Christianity, Judai ...

, which resulted in the three friars being stoned. The beatification process for the three slain friars launched in 1932 over two centuries following their deaths; the trio were beatified in Rome on 20 November 1988 upon confirmation that the trio died "in odium fidei" (in hatred of the faith).

Life

Johannes Laurentius Weiss

Johannes Laurentius Weiss was born in

Konnersreuth Konnersreuth is a municipality in the district of Tirschenreuth in Bavaria, Germany. It is situated in the northeast foothills of the Steinwald mountains between the Fichtel Mountains and the Upper Palatinate Forest, close to the Czech border. Th ...

Bavaria Bavaria, officially the Free State of Bavaria, is a States of Germany, state in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the list of German states by area, largest German state by land area, comprising approximately 1/5 of the total l ...

in 1675 as the second of six children. He was educated in a

Cistercian The Cistercians (), officially the Order of Cistercians (, abbreviated as OCist or SOCist), are a Catholic religious order of monks and nuns that branched off from the Benedictines and follow the Rule of Saint Benedict, as well as the contri ...

convent A convent is an enclosed community of monks, nuns, friars or religious sisters. Alternatively, ''convent'' means the building used by the community. The term is particularly used in the Catholic Church, Lutheran churches, and the Anglican ...

in the

Upper Palatinate The Upper Palatinate (; , , ) is an administrative district in the east of Bavaria, Germany. It consists of seven districts and 226 municipalities, including three cities. Geography The Upper Palatinate is a landscape with low mountains and nume ...

. He entered the

at their convent in

Graz Graz () is the capital of the Austrian Federal states of Austria, federal state of Styria and the List of cities and towns in Austria, second-largest city in Austria, after Vienna. On 1 January 2025, Graz had a population of 306,068 (343,461 inc ...

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

on 13 October 1693 and upon his admittance into the order he assumed the name "Liberat". He received his

sacerdotal ordination Ordination is the process by which individuals are consecrated, that is, set apart and elevated from the laity class to the clergy, who are thus then authorized (usually by the denominational hierarchy composed of other clergy) to perform vari ...

to the priesthood in

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

on 14 September 1699 from the

Cardinal Cardinal or The Cardinal most commonly refers to * Cardinalidae, a family of North and South American birds **''Cardinalis'', genus of three species in the family Cardinalidae ***Northern cardinal, ''Cardinalis cardinalis'', the common cardinal of ...

Archbishop of Esztergom In Christian denominations, an archbishop is a bishop of higher rank or office. In most cases, such as the Catholic Church, there are many archbishops who either have jurisdiction over an ecclesiastical province in addition to their own archdioc ...

Leopold Karl von Kollonitsch Leopold Karl von Kollonitsch (also spelt ''Collonicz'', ''Colonitz'', ''Kollonitz'', ''Kolonits'' and ''Kolonić''; 26 October 1631 – 20 January 1707) or Lipót Kollonich was a cardinal of the Holy Roman Church, Archbishop of Kalocsa and late ...

. Following his ordination he worked in

Langenlois Langenlois () is a town at the Kamp river in the Kamptal, district of Krems-Land in the Austrian state of Lower Austria. Famous for its wine production, it is also home to the Loisium, a centre celebrating and advertising the local wine and built ...

and then in Graz. In 1703 he offered himself to go to the missions but had to undergo training first in order to fulfil this request.

Propaganda Fide The Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples (CEP; ) was a congregation of the Roman Curia of the Catholic Church in Rome, responsible for missionary work and related activities. It is also known by its former title, the Sacred Congregati ...

named him as such on 4 April 1704 after he underwent a training course for five months in Rome and departed on 1 January 1705 for

to join the group that would go to

. He left Cairo along the

on 14 January 1705 - with seven companions that Father Giuseppe da Gerusalemme was leading - in order to go to Ethiopia to begin their mission. In June the team arrived in Debba in

Sudan Sudan, officially the Republic of the Sudan, is a country in Northeast Africa. It borders the Central African Republic to the southwest, Chad to the west, Libya to the northwest, Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the east, Eritrea and Ethiopi ...

but were unable to continue due to tensions and so on 21 August took refuge in Allefun. The team remained there until being called to

Sennar Sennar ( ') is a city on the Blue Nile in Sudan and possibly the capital of the state of Sennar. For several centuries it was the capital of the Funj Kingdom of Sennar and until at least 2011, Sennar was the capital of Sennar State. Histo ...

on 31 March 1708 but over time some of the members died or returned home which left Weiss alone with Giuseppe and with Michele Pio Fasoli. But there was a setback upon Giuseppe's death in May 1709 which later forced Weiss and Fasoli to return to Cairo on 30 June 1710. On 20 April 1711 the officials of Propaganda Fide in Rome asked the two to attempt to travel to Ethiopia once more prompting their departure on 3 November 1711 alongside Antonio Francesco Marzorati; the trio arrived in

Gondar Gondar, also spelled Gonder (Amharic: ጎንደር, ''Gonder'' or ''Gondär''; formerly , ''Gʷandar'' or ''Gʷender''), is a city and woreda in Ethiopia. Located in the North Gondar Zone of the Amhara Region, Gondar is north of Lake Tana on ...

on 20 July 1912 to have the emperor

Yostos Yostos (), throne name Tsehay Sagad (, died ), was Emperor of Ethiopia from 14 October 1711 to 19 February 1716, and a member of Solomonic dynasty. After the death of Tewoflos, the nobles chose one of their own as nəgusä nägäst to avoid a cycl ...

receive them.

Michele Pio Fasoli

Michele Pio Fasoli was born in Zerbo in

Pavia Pavia ( , ; ; ; ; ) is a town and comune of south-western Lombardy, in Northern Italy, south of Milan on the lower Ticino (river), Ticino near its confluence with the Po (river), Po. It has a population of c. 73,086. The city was a major polit ...

in 1676. He entered the Order of Friars Minor in

Lugano Lugano ( , , ; ) is a city and municipality within the Lugano District in the canton of Ticino, Switzerland. It is the largest city in both Ticino and the Italian-speaking region of southern Switzerland. Lugano has a population () of , and an u ...

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on 5 March 1792 and upon his admittance selected the name "Samuele". Propaganda Fide recognized him on 21 January 1704 to be one of their missionaries after he completed a training course to prepare him for his future work.

Antonio Francesco Marzorati

Antonio Francesco Marzorati was born in

Varese Varese ( , ; or ; ; ; archaic ) is a city and ''comune'' in north-western Lombardy, northern Italy, north-west of Milan. The population of Varese in 2018 was 80,559. It is the capital of the Province of Varese. The hinterland or exurban part ...

on 10 September 1670. He arrived first in Cairo on 10 September 1701 after completing a course to prepare him for his work in the foreign missions.

Deaths

Emperor

(r. 1716–21) claimed that all Catholics were

and ordered their immediate persecution; he did not agree with the policies of his predecessor Yostos (r. 1711–16) who allowed missionaries to teach and operate in a small hospital even though he forbade them to preach. The three were arrested on 2 March 1716 and were pressured to renounce the

and convert to the

Ethiopian Orthodox Church The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church () is the largest of the Oriental Orthodox Churches. One of the few Christian churches in Africa originating before European colonization of the continent, the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church dates bac ...

; the trio refused and were publicly

stoned to death Stoning, or lapidation, is a method of capital punishment where a group throws stones at a person until the subject dies from blunt trauma. It has been attested as a form of punishment for grave misdeeds since ancient times. Stoning appears t ...

on 3 March as a result.

Beatification

The beatification process opened under the Cardinal

Archbishop of Vienna The Archbishop of Vienna is the prelate of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Vienna who is concurrently the metropolitan bishop of its ecclesiastical province which includes the dioceses of Eisenstadt, Linz and St. Pölten. From 1469 to 1513, ...

Theodor Innitzer Theodor Innitzer (25 December 1875 – 9 October 1955) was Archbishop of Vienna and a cardinal of the Catholic Church. Early life Innitzer was born in Neugeschrei (Nové Zvolání), part of the town Weipert (Vejprty) in Bohemia, at that time ...

in November 1932 and who closed the process in March 1943. It was formally opened in Rome on 25 July 1933, granting the friars the title of

Servants of God Servant of God () is a title used in the Catholic Church to indicate that an individual is on the first step toward possible canonization as a saint. Terminology The expression ''Servant of God'' appears nine times in the Bible, the first five in ...

. The official

Positio A ''positio'' (short for the Latin ''positio super virtutibus'': "position on the virtues") is a document or collection of documents used in the process by which a Catholic person is declared Venerable, the second of four steps on the path to can ...

dossier was submitted to the

Congregation for the Causes of Saints In the Catholic Church, the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, previously named the Congregation for the Causes of Saints (), is the dicastery of the Roman Curia that oversees the complex process that leads to the canonization of saints, passi ...

in Rome in 1984 with historians approving the cause on 16 May 1984 after having assessed the circumstances of their deaths in light of the historical context. Theologians also approved the cause on 15 December 1987 as did the C.C.S. members on 1 March 1988. The trio were approved for beatification on 28 March 1988 after

Pope John Paul II Pope John Paul II (born Karol Józef Wojtyła; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 16 October 1978 until Death and funeral of Pope John Paul II, his death in 2005. In his you ...

confirmed the three friars were killed "in odium fidei" (in hatred of the faith) and beatified the missionaries on 20 November 1988 in

Saint Peter's Basilica The Papal Basilica of Saint Peter in the Vatican (), or simply St. Peter's Basilica (; ), is a church of the Italian Renaissance architecture, Italian High Renaissance located in Vatican City, an independent microstate enclaved within the cit ...

. The current

postulator A postulator is the person who guides a cause for beatification or canonization through the judicial processes required by the Catholic Church. The qualifications, role and function of the postulator are spelled out in the ''Norms to be Observed i ...

for this cause is the Franciscan priest Giovangiuseppe Califano.

References

External links

Hagiography Circle
{{DEFAULTSORT:Weiss, Johannes Laurentius and 2 Companions 1675 births 1676 births 1670 births 1716 deaths 17th-century German people 17th-century Italian Christian monks 17th-century Italian explorers 17th-century Roman Catholics 18th-century Italian Roman Catholic priests 18th-century Roman Catholic martyrs 18th-century venerated Christians Beatifications by Pope John Paul II Franciscan beatified people Franciscan missionaries Friars Minor German Franciscans German people murdered abroad German Roman Catholic missionaries Italian Franciscans Italian people murdered abroad Italian Roman Catholic missionaries Missionary educators People executed by stoning Clergy from Bavaria People from the Province of Pavia People from the Province of Varese People murdered in Ethiopia Roman Catholic missionaries in Ethiopia People from Tirschenreuth (district)