Blessed Francesco Zirano

Francesco Zirano, OFM Conv. (1565 – 25 January 1603) was a Roman Catholic priest from Sardinia and a professed member of the Order of Friars Minor Conventual. He is recognized as a martyr in the Catholic Church. Born and raised in Sardinia, he became an ordained priest in 1586. When Barbary pirates abducted and enslaved his cousin, Zirano raised funds over the course of several years to pay the ransom for his cousin's freedom. He traveled to Algiers in 1602 and helped four Christian slaves escape to freedom, but soldiers later targeted and imprisoned him. The Grand Council of Algiers sentenced him to death for his role in helping the slaves escape and for being a spy for the city's enemies, but his captors offered to spare his life if he would convert to Islam. He refused, and they executed him by flaying. Zirano's beatification cause commenced in 1731, and Pope Francis eventually approved him for beatification in 2014. Cardinal Angelo Amato presided over his beatification in Sassari on 12 October 2014. Zirano was born in about 1564 in Sassari, in the Kingdom of Sardinia (once part of Spain and today Italy) to a family of modest farmers. Historians have not been able to discover the name of his father, who they believe died in a plague epidemic that claimed twenty thousand victims in Sassari in 1582. His mother, Margherita, lived until 1598. He most likely had two sisters and one brother. At the age of about 33, official papers described him as "a man [...] of short stature, black eyes, and brown beard." In an era where the majority of the population was illiterate, it was exceptional when he began receiving an education from the monastery of Santa Maria di Betlem at the age of 14. In 1580, Zirano became a professed member of the Order of Friars Minor Conventual, and received his ordination to the priesthood in 1586 at the Cathedral of San Nicola from the Archbishop of Sassari Alfonso de Lorca. At the friary, he served variously as beggar, bursar, and vicar.