LES MARTYRS D'OTRONTO

Pope canonises 800 Italians beheaded by Muslims for refusing conversion or submission to Islam

Posted on May 12, 2013 

by creepingsharia 

Will we all be Otrantians? 




via BBC News – Pope canonises 800 Italian Ottoman vi’ctims of Otranto. (um, note to BBC:  they were victims of invading Muslims for the sake of Allah, not victims of Otranto as your title incorrectly states)

Pope Francis has proclaimed the first saints of his pontificate in a ceremony at the Vatican – a list which includes 800 victims of an atrocity carried out by Ottoman soldiers in 1480.

They were beheaded in the southern Italian town of Otranto after refusing to convert to Islam.

Their names are unknown, apart from one man, Antonio Primaldo.

The Italian “Martyrs of Otranto” were executed after 20,000 Turkish soldiers invaded their town in south-eastern Italy.

There was no hint of any anti-Islamic sentiment in the homily that Pope Francis delivered before tens of thousands of worshippers gathered in St Peter’s Square, the BBC’s David Willey in Rome reports.

The Pope may refuse to acknowledge the source and the BBC may be quick to grasp for anti-Islamic straws, but history cannot be rewritten by the dhimmi.
The BBC sidebar notes:

Otranto 14 August 1480

• The `’Martyrs of Otranto” were 813 Italians beheaded for defying demands by Turkish invaders to renounce Christianity
• The Turks had been sent by Mohammed II, who had already captured the “second Rome” of Constantinople
• His fleet landed in Otranto, Italy’s easternmost city, and laid siege
• Its citizens held out for two weeks, allowing the King of Naples to muster his forces and prevent the fall of Rome

More via Antonio Primaldo, the Saint Who Stood to the End:

Blessed Antonio was a tailor in the city of Otranto, Italy, in the 1400s.  In 1480 the city was invaded by Turkish Moslems, their 150 ships and 18,000 troops greatly outnumbering the 6,000 inhabitants of the town.  The conquerors executed the elderly bishop, Archbishop Stephen Pendinelli, and took the women and children into slavery.  They rounded up all the men between the ages of fifteen and fifty—some 800 men in all.  

The Ottoman captors threatened to kill all the men, but promised to grant their lives and the freedom of their women and children if the men would simply renounce Christ and become Muslim.

Blessed Antonio remained firm, and encouraged his fellow citizens to stand strong in their faith.  “My brothers,” he said, “until today we have fought in defense of our homeland, to save our lives, and for our earthly governors.  Now it is time for us to fight to save our souls for the Lord.  And since he died on the cross for us, it is fitting that we should die for him, remaining firm and constant in the faith, and with this earthly death we will earn eternal life and the glory of martyrdom.”

Blessed Antonio was the first to be beheaded, followed by 799 others.  Tradition holds that Blessed Antonio’s headless body remained standing and could not be knocked down by the Turkish soldiers.  Only when the last of the men was slain did his body collapse of its own accord.  One of the Muslims, seeing this miracle, was converted and professed his faith in Christianity—after which he was immediately impaled upon a scimitar by his own comrades-in-arms.

Legacy of jihad: The Skull Cathedral of Otranto

The Ottoman Wars were motivated by territory gains and eradicating the Christian faith while spreading the Muslim one.

Image: Laurent Massoptier

For knowing, Otranto, recognized as one of the most beautiful villages in Italy, in 2010 was declared by UNESCO World Heritage of a culture of Peace.
A similar remnant of Muslim conquest and barbarism in Serbia: Chele Kula: Tower of Skulls.

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