Saints Manuel Ruiz and Companions

Saints Manuel Ruiz and Companions are eleven martyrs killed in Damascus on the night of July 9 to 10, 1860. Eight of them were Franciscans of the Custody of the Holy Land, and three were lay faithful of the Maronite Church, brothers by blood. The Church commemorates them on July 10.

In the spring of 1860 the persecution of Christians spread from Lebanon to Syria. On July 9 a mob burst into the Christian quarter of Damascus, cut off the ways of escape, and began to loot and kill. During the night the attackers entered the Franciscan friary of Saint Paul through a hidden door shown to them by a traitor. They demanded of each of their victims that he renounce the faith and embrace Islam. No one consented.

The superior was Father Manuel Ruiz López, born in 1804 in the Spanish province of Burgos and sent to the Holy Land in 1831. With him lived five priests, the parish priest Carmelo Bolta Bañuls, the Austrian Engelbert Kolland, Nicanor Ascanio Soria, Nicolás María Alberca Torres, and Pedro Nolasco Soler Méndez, and two lay brothers, the sacristan Francisco Pinazo Peñalver and the cook Juan Jacob Fernández.

Father Ruiz gave his brothers absolution and ran to the church to consume the Blessed Sacrament and save it from profanation. He was killed on his knees before the altar. Father Nicolás declared that he would rather die a thousand times than abandon the faith. Father Engelbert managed to escape, but he was caught and killed outside the friary. The two lay brothers, hiding in the bell tower, prayed with their hands raised to heaven until they were thrown down from the tower.

The eldest of the Massabki brothers, Francis, a silk merchant and the father of eight children, was known in Damascus for his generosity to the poor. Abdel Mooti, the father of five children, taught at the school beside the friary and was a catechist. The youngest, Raphael, was unmarried and spent long hours in prayer in the friars’ church. That night they were in the friary, and when seized they declared that they were Christians ready to die for Christ. When he was offered his life in exchange for apostasy, Francis is said to have replied: “Sheikh Abdallah may take the money I lent him, and he may take my life, but no one can make me deny my faith. I am a Maronite Christian, and in the faith of Christ I will die.”

The martyrs were buried in a common grave, which after the rebuilding of the church in 1866 became a place of prayer for the Christians of Damascus. Pius XI beatified all eleven on October 10, 1926, in the year of the seventh centenary of the death of Saint Francis of Assisi. The Massabki brothers were added to the cause at the request of the Maronite archbishop of Damascus.

The Maronite bishops and the superiors of the Franciscans asked for their canonization. Pope Francis agreed to an extraordinary procedure without the examination of a miracle, and on October 20, 2024, in Saint Peter’s Square, he proclaimed the martyrs saints. He spoke of them as faithful servants who served in martyrdom and in joy.