François-Benjamin May

The Vatican record

• 27 January 2025 — Martyrdom recognised (decree list, 2025)

Who they were

François-Benjamin May was born on 21 July 1870 at Bagnes in Switzerland, to a farming family, and spent his boyhood helping on the family farm. At eighteen he met some travelling Marist Brothers and decided to join them, entering the novitiate in 1888 and taking the name Brother Licarione.

He spent his life as a teacher, especially of working-class children, in various Marist schools in Spain, also proving a skilled administrator. In 1906 he opened a school in the El Poblenou district of Barcelona. During the anti-clerical violence of the 'Tragic Week' in July 1909 the Marist school was burned, and the next day the community was ambushed as they left their home: Brother Licarione, first out of the door, was shot, then finished off with knives and stones, forgiving his killers as he died on 27 July 1909. Pope Francis approved the decree on his martyrdom on 27 January 2025, opening the way to his beatification.

The miracles

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

Why that counted as sanctity

Swiss Marist Brother shot in Barcelona during the 1909 'Tragic Week'; martyrdom decree approved 2025.

The cause