The Eucharistic Martyrs of Casamari

Napoleon Bonaparte is considered one of the greatest military commanders in history. He attained prominence during the French Revolution leading several successful campaigns during this time. One of these campaigns began in 1798 when his forces invaded the Kingdom of Naples. Napoleon's Grand Armee created the short-lived Parthenopean Republic. The French soldiers who supported this "kingdom" consisted of many ruthless men who cared little for humanity itself.

On or about May 12, 1799, about 15 of these soldiers stumbled upon the Cistercian Gothic Abbey in Casamari. Their actions during that night and into May 13 left six friars viciously murdered. They had stayed behind to save Jesus Christ, present in the Holy Eucharist. Our Lord had been safely in repose inside the Tabernacle, and the friars wanted to protect Him. They would die trying.

When the soldiers arrived at the Abbey, the superior, Father Simon Cardon, welcomed them with open arms offering food and drink and a place for them to rest. But the hatred for Catholics and religion in general was so pervasive at the time (this was toward the end of the French Revolution) the soldiers only had an appetite for one thing;  to kill and pillage.

The soldiers immediately went about desecrating the church. The violence against the property quickly spread to the Tabernacle. Many of the monks fled the Abbey and hid in the fields. Six stayed behind. These men wanted to protect Jesus.

These included:

• Father Cardon who had refused to take the oath for the Civil Constitution of the Clergy;
• Brother Mathurin Marie Pitri, a Bohemian monk from the Austrian empire; Brother
• Modeste Marie Burgen, a religious from Sept-Fons who had sought refuge at Casamari;
• Brother Albertino Marie Maisonade, who was unable to live his vocation in France;
• Brother Zosimo Maria Brambat, a young religious from Milan;
• Father Domenico Maria Zawrel. a man hunted by the French Republic.

All of these men were massacred by the band of hate-filled soldiers, who were most likely inspired to commit their acts by too much wine. They destroyed the Tabernacle, leaving it in pieces.  Consecrated hosts, the treasure held in repose in all Catholic Churches to this very day, were strewn all about the sanctuary and the church floor. As the friars tried to gather the hosts, the soldiers chased each of them down and, with their swords, hacked away at them until they were all dead.

On July 26. 2016, Father Jacques Hamel, was saying Mass in Saint-Étienne-du-Rouvray Church in  Normandy, France. Two Islamist terrorists burst into the church and attacked the 85-year-old priest as he was saying Mass. His throat was cut, and his head almost severed. Father Hamel died "In Odium Fidei" (In Hatred of the Faith). The six men who died at Casamari 217 years earlier died In Odium Fidei also, victims of loving Jesus Christ.

This is martyrdom. This is witnessing to Christ using the greatest gift God has given us; our lives. People have been accepting martyrdom since Christianity began. Today's 21^st-century world has many people who say that today's world has no room for Jesus Christ. Father Jacques Hamel and the Six Martyrs of Casamari, shining examples set 217 years apart, say they are wrong. Jesus Christ lives, and we will give Him our lives if necessary.

Pope Benedict XVI wrote: "Even this twenty-first century opened under the sign of martyrdom. When Christians are truly the leaven, the light, and the salt of the earth, they too become, as happened to Jesus, the object of persecution"; like him, they are "signs of contradiction."

We ask the Martrys of Casamari to pray for us all.

Copyright©Larry Peterson 2021