In 1565, the Spanish were on the coast of what’s now Georgia. They called the place Guale, which later generations of English speakers would pronounce “Wally.”
The place was named for a leader of the Guale people, who were distinct from the Timucua and Apalachee. Spanish Franciscans set up missions.
In 1597, a group of Guale people began killing priests. The match that lit the fire was a dispute over whether a local leader named Juanillo could take a second wife. But this was not a personal quarrel. It was an uprising, a broad dispute about who was going to make the rules, who was in charge. It was an attempt by one group to throw off the influence — the dominance — of another.
The Spanish entrepreneurs of the day were frank about their plans to exploit people for their labor and wealth. It was an age in which Spanish entrepreneurs kidnapped and enslaved native people to work on the sugar plantations in the Caribbean.
Some of the Franciscan fathers were the most outspoken critics of slavery and exploitation. Others went along with the crowd.
All this ancient history is not quite dead.
The Georgia Martyrs are a topic of discussion today Georgia. In 2025, Pope Francis authorized the bureau that examines questions of beatification and sanctification to recognize five priests as martyrs, murdered “in hatred of the faith.” At the cathedral in Savanah last weekend, there was a celebration of the martyrs. It was statewide news.
Two people can witness the same incident and come to different conclusions. That’s true of the events we witness today and true of the events of the past.
I don’t whether I have more sympathy for the massacrers or the massacred. I grieve for both.
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