Pope Leo XIV recalled this Wednesday, November 4, during the general audience, the two beatifications that will take place on Saturday the 7th: that of the Guatemalan Franciscan friar Augusto Rafael Ramírez Monasterio, in Antigua Guatemala, and that of Father Francisco González de Córdova and his 79 companion martyrs, in Santander Cathedral. Referring to the Spanish martyrs, the Pope stated that “they did not fear shedding their blood for love of Christ” during the religious persecution of the 1930s, and spoke of the new blesseds as a “new piece” of the “immense multitude of the Lord’s friends.”
In his final greetings, the Pontiff also asked for prayers for the apostolic journey he will undertake to Uruguay, Argentina, and Peru between November 6 and 17.
Guatemala: a friar murdered for keeping the seal of confession
Friar Augusto Ramírez Monasterio, a priest of the Order of Friars Minor, was murdered in 1983, in the midst of Guatemala’s internal armed conflict, 43 years ago. On January 22, 2026, Leo XIV authorized the decree recognizing his martyrdom out of hatred for the faith, as InfoVaticana reported when the decree was published. The beatification ceremony will be held in Antigua Guatemala and will be presided over, as the Pope’s delegate, by Cardinal Francisco Robles Ortega.
On November 3, the Episcopal Conference of Guatemala issued a statement expressing its joy at the upcoming beatification. The bishops recall that, at that time, those in power saw the Church’s evangelizing, humanitarian, and social work as a threat to their plans to subjugate the population. According to the episcopate, Friar Augusto defended the faith and the dignity of persons in a context of violence and attended in the sacrament of reconciliation anyone who sought him, without discrimination, to guide them in their conversion. The bishops propose him as an example for many priests of his time.
Santander: 80 martyrs of 1936 and 1937
The beatification in Santander will take place on Saturday the 7th at 11:00 a.m. in the cathedral and will be presided over, on behalf of the Pope, by Cardinal Marcello Semeraro, Prefect of the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints. The diocese has scheduled a prayer vigil on Friday the 6th and a thanksgiving Mass in the cathedral itself on Sunday the 8th.
Leo XIV signed the decree of martyrdom on May 22, a few weeks before his visit to Spain, as InfoVaticana published. The group consists of González de Córdova himself and 79 companions: 67 diocesan priests, three Carmelites, three seminarians, and seven laypeople, who died for their faith in the diocese during the religious persecution of those years.
With both ceremonies, which coincide on the same day on either side of the Atlantic, the Church raises to the altars martyrs of the twentieth century from two countries united by language and faith. Both are celebrated on the eve of the Pope’s trip to South America.