Ignatius Maloyan (1869-1915)

Ignatius Maloyan is a model for today’s suffering Christians around the world . . .

Ignatius Maloyan

Feast Day: June 11
Beatified: October 7, 2001

More Christians died for their faith in the 20th century than in the previous 19 centuries combined. Representative of these is Ignatius Maloyan, an Armenian Rite Catholic bishop who died in the Armenian genocide.

Ordained in 1896, he became a bishop 15 years later. By this time, the Turkish Muslim government had placed extremely harsh restrictions on their citizens. A police chief named Mahmdouh Bey arrested Maloyan and 800 others. During the kangaroo trial that followed, he encouraged the bishop to become a Muslim.

“There is no way I would reject my religion and my Savior,” he replied. “You can beat me and cut me into pieces, but I will never deny my faith.”

Maloyan’s captors responded by torturing him. On the Feast of the Sacred Heart in 1915, Bey ordered the bishop and 416 prisoners marched into the desert in chains. He then had every man shot before Maloyan’s eyes. Before shooting the bishop, he asked again if he would become a Muslim. Maloyan replied, “I glory only in the cross of my sweet Savior.” As Maloyan died, he was heard to say, “Have mercy on me, O Lord Jesus. Into your hands I entrust my soul.”

BRIAN O’NEEL is a writer, husband and father of six living in southeast Pennsylvania. His latest book is “39 New Saints You Should Know.”