The Catholic Martyrs of the Twentieth Century: A Comprehensive World History

by Robert Royal

Book Overview

From the Catholic martyrs at Auschwitz to Oscar Romero; from Ita Ford and her companions to the recent murders of Christians in India, it is estimated that more than one million Christians died for... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0824518462
• ISBN13: 9780824518462
• Release Date: January 2000
• Publisher: Crossroad Publishing
• Length: 430 Pages
• Weight: 1.41 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 6.4" x 9.5"

Customer Reviews

Outstanding account of men & women truly devoted to Christ

How can I put my experience reading this book into words. Story after story provides accounts of amazing men and women who, in the face of unthinkable torture and certain death, simply would not abandon their Savior nor the Church in Rome. Each chapter details the persecution of Catholics in a different part of the world, including Mexico, Soviet Russia and its Territories, Ukraine, Charles de Foucauld, Spain, Nazi Holocaust, Edith Stein, Poland and Saint Maximillian Kolbe, Eastern and Central Europe - An Introduction, Albania, Lithuania, Romania, Latin America (including Archbishop Romero of El Salvador), Asia - An Introduction, China, Korea, Vietnam, and Africa. Some chapters portray individuals such as Charles de Foucauld, Edith Stein, and Saint Maximillian Kolbe. This book will amaze and inspire you. It is a textbook on how to love Christ above all and a reminder that the Catholic faith is truly worth dying for.

Good Friday continues

Robert Royal's account of the 20th century martyrs is grim, compelling, necessary. To read this book is to take one's place with St John the Evangelist, St Mary Magdalene, and the Mother of God under the shadow of the Cross. We read with what relentless fury, with what dehumanizing atrocity, the secular persecutors of the Church treated the priests, religious & layfolk. The section on the Spanish Civil War was especially eye-opening & horrifying: a needed corrective to histories that have been told from the skewed standpoint of the Left. The luminous examples of Miguel Pro of 1920s Mexico, of Charles de Foucauld in 1916 North Africa, of Oscar Romero and others, will inspire any reader. They are not double-minded souls, but lovers of God's law. The Communist atrocities in Albania and Rumania are particularly reprehensible and sickening, the tortures devised quite hellish. We are angered at the comparative silence of other historians when denouncing the evils that came from these nations.The history (not comprehensive, the author admits, in spite of the subtitle which the publisher insisted upon) takes us to the days of Solidarity in Poland, through Korea, Vietnam, and China, through martyrs of the Idi Amin era in Uganda, and the awesome example of the seven Cistercian Trappists in Tibhirine (Our Lady of Atlas), Algeria, who were compelled to surrender their lives in 1996. In the chapter on Vietnam, Cardinal Francis X. Nguyen Van Thuan tells of his days in Communist prisons."Is thy steadfast love declared in the grave, thy faithfulness in Abaddon? Are thy wonders known in the darkness, thy saving help in the land of forgetfulness?" Robert Royal answers the psalmist's plaintive questions (from Psalm 88) in the affirmative. "The Catholic Martyrs of the Twentieth Century" is a harrowing account which can dishearten, and cause us to hate what is evil more than we love what is good, but the unwavering confidence and hope of these scores of Christian martyrs -- from St Maximilian Kolbe to the Vietnamese Redemptorist who would banter with the saints in heaven -- will almost certainly inspire and fortify.

This Book Has Helped Me

I picked up Robert Royal's book mainly because I wanted information about this little-known subject. I had in the back of my mind that I could use it for apologetics purposes to point out that Catholics have been targeted by exploitive regimes rather than being collaborators, as Pope Pius XII has been accused of.What I encountered was the power of the witness of these men and women who found the grace to love their enemies. One of the priests who was victimized by the Soviets wrote to his mother from the Gulag: "If we allow ourselves to become exasperated, we are not real Christians, just fanatics". I have to admit to being exasperated alot and have had to examine how much do I love people whose behavior causes me pain (usually unintentionally). Fr. Christian Lebreten of the French Trappists who were killed by Algerian terrorists 8 years ago also got my attention. He writes to his killer (in advance) "I see God's face in yours" and "may we meet as happy theives in the kingdom if it is the Father's will". The monks all wrote in advance in the journals that they did not want Muslims in general or their own neighbors to be blamed or looked down upon for their deaths by an extreme minority.My wife was upset with me for taking the book on vacation. (It isn't light reading.) But I'm glad I did.

Inspiration for the New Millennium

No period in history has seen greater persecution of Christians, and so we should not be surprised that the 20th century has seen the creation of perhaps more martyrs and Saints than any other historical period which preceeded it.In his book, Robert Royal examines the persecution of Catholics in countries such as Mexico, Spain, Austria, and Poland over the last century.Royal's book includes extensive research and compelling background material for each of the martyrs addressed. The book includes such well-known martyrs such as St. Maximilian Kolbe, Miguel Pro, and Bishop Oscar Romero, and also introduces the reader to lesser-known martyrs for the faith.No Pope has canonized or beatified as many Saints as Pope John Paul II. A great many of them are from the 20th century. There is a reason that the Pope has done this. He realizes that we will need the role models of these faithful men and women as we face the future.Royal presents us with the stories behind many of these very men and women. Their stories are both extraordinary and inspirational.Royal's book presents not only the stories of these martyrs, but also a history of the Church versus socialist/communist governments. In the end, it is a book about good and evil.

Inspiring!

Royal does his readers a great service by showing that the Catholic martyrs of the 20th century were ordinary people who were not afraid to do the extraordinary when it came to standing up for their faith. Unlike other books, which have portrayed martyrs as untouchable icons of virtue and piety, Royal brings a human dimension to each of his stories, making them interesting and relevant to all readers. Thought-provoking, well-researched, and simply fantastic! A must read!