Abraham de Georgiis

Who they were

François Abraham de Georgiis was born in Aleppo, Syria, in 1563 to a Lebanese Maronite family. He studied at the Maronite College in Rome, entered the Jesuits in 1582, and was ordained priest in 1591 after studies in Florence and Rome, having already mastered Arabic, Hebrew, Chaldean and Syriac. Sent to the Indian mission, he reached Goa in 1592 and spent a year working among the Christians of the Malabar coast.

In 1593 he was chosen to reinforce the Jesuit mission in Ethiopia after two other missionaries had fallen into Turkish hands. Disguised as an Armenian merchant, he reached the Ottoman-held port of Massawa in 1595, but was arrested when the governor, Xafer, grew suspicious of his identity. Questioned on whether he was Christian or Muslim, he professed his Christian faith and refused to convert despite Xafer's efforts to persuade him; he had already exchanged his disguise for a cassock, wishing to die as a Jesuit priest, and was beheaded on 30 April 1595. His cause was formally opened in Rome in 1902.

The miracles

The Church has not yet approved a miracle in this cause.

Why that counted as sanctity

Lebanese Maronite Jesuit priest sent to reinforce the Ethiopia mission; beheaded at Massawa in 1595 for refusing to renounce his Christian faith before the Ottoman governor.