Twentieth Century Martyrs

One of the books on my summer reading list was The Catholic Martyrs of the Twentieth Century, A Comprehensive World History, by Robert Royal. George Weigel calls it, “essential reading for anyone who cares about the Church in the modern world.” More Catholics were persecuted, tortured, and put to death for their faith in the twentieth century than in any previous century. Naively, and sometimes blithely, we appraise the last century in terms of scientific and technological progress. We forget that a mighty river of blood courses through the twentieth century during which more than one million believers were killed for their faith. The passion and death of Saint John the Baptist was but the beginning of two thousand and more years of bloody persecution for the Friends of the Bridegroom and Witnesses of the Lamb. How many of these can you identify?