Saints Antonio Primaldo and Companions

Saints Antonio Primaldo and Companions were laymen of Otranto in Apulia who, in August 1480, after Ottoman forces had taken their city, refused to renounce Christ and were beheaded. There were nearly eight hundred of them; the number 813 is often given. The Roman Martyrology commemorates them on August 14; on that day the Church of Otranto has kept their memory for centuries.

At the end of July 1480 a Turkish fleet came to Otranto. The city, which had only a weak garrison, was defended by its own inhabitants and refused the summons to surrender. On August 12, after fifteen days of bombardment, the attackers broke into the city and in the cathedral killed Archbishop Stefano Pendinelli, the canons, priests, and many of the faithful who were praying there.

The next day the commander, Gedik Ahmed Pasha, had all the surviving men aged fifteen and over gathered on the hill of Minerva, outside the walls, and through an interpreter demanded that they renounce their faith and embrace Islam in exchange for their lives. Antonio Pezzulla, called Primaldo, an elderly craftsman, according to various sources a weaver, a cloth shearer, or a shoemaker, answered in the name of all. He declared that they believed in Jesus Christ, the Son of God and true God, and would rather die a thousand times than deny Him. The others murmured their assent.

The Martyrology says that Antonio encouraged his companions to persevere in the faith. According to old accounts, he told them that until then they had fought for their homeland and their lives, and that now they had to fight to save their souls for the Lord, who had died for them on the cross. The pasha ordered them to be beheaded at once. According to tradition, Antonio was the first to die, and his body remained standing until the last of his companions had been killed. Sources give the day of the execution as August 13 or 14.

The bodies lay unburied for a year at the place of execution. In 1481, after Otranto was retaken, they were moved to the cathedral, where the relics rest in a chapel built for them; some were taken to Naples. From the beginning the people venerated the slain as martyrs. The first inquiry toward their beatification was held in 1539, and on December 14, 1771, Pope Clement XIV confirmed their cult. On the 500th anniversary of the martyrdom, October 5, 1980, John Paul II came to Otranto; he recalled the Council’s teaching on the Muslims, who together with us adore the one God, and called for mutual understanding.

Benedict XVI approved the decree on their martyrdom in 2007, and in 2012 the decree on a miracle: the medically inexplicable healing of Sister Francesca Levote from cancer. He set the date of the canonization at the consistory of February 11, 2013, the same one at which he announced his resignation. Pope Francis canonized the martyrs on May 12, 2013, in Saint Peter’s Square, in the first canonization of his pontificate. He asked God to sustain the Christians who still suffer violence today and to give them the courage to respond to evil with good.