Antonio Primaldo

Who they were

The decree on the martyrdom records that after the Ottoman fleet took Otranto on 12 August 1480 the commander ordered the eight hundred or so surviving men and boys of sixteen years and over to abandon the faith of Christ, and that Antonio Primaldo, a humble cloth-worker, answered at once in the name of them all that he and all of them would rather die than abjure the faith of Christ; they were beheaded on the spot.

The decree confirming the immemorial veneration paid to the martyrs of Otranto was issued on 14 December 1771, and they were canonised on 12 May 2013 by Francis.

The miracles

As a martyr he was raised to the altars without a miracle.

Why that counted as sanctity

The decree says that the witnesses of Christ at Otranto were at once held and constantly honoured as martyrs by the people of God, and that the church of Otranto keeps their memory every 14 August.