Blessed Tommas Saleh

Thomas Saleh (3 May 1879 – 28 February 1917), born Jirays H̱anā S̱āleẖ, religious name Thūmā from B'abdāt, was a Lebanese Maronite priest of the Order of Friars Minor Capuchin. Saleh joined the Franciscans in Istanbul and carried out his novitiate period there before he made his profession in mid-1900 and was ordained to the priesthood in late 1904. He tended to the missions and worked with his peer Leonard Melki; he dedicated himself to the mission school and was a noted preacher. He was transferred in 1910 but expelled in late 1914 once World War I and the Assyrian Genocide[commenced. Saleh was arrested in 1916 after the police planted evidence in his convent to frame him to make an arrest. He was mistreated in prison before he died from exhaustion from the torture in addition to the disease that ailed him in his imprisonment. He refused to capitulate to his captors to convert to Islam and refused to abandon his faith. The beatification process for Saleh commenced in 2005 in Beirut and he became titled as a Servant of God upon its initiation. Pope Francis determined in 2020 that Saleh had died "ex aerumnis carceris" (from the hardships of incarceration) and permitted for Saleh to be beatified. He and his peer Leonard Melki were beatified on 4 June 2022. Thomas Saleh was born in B'abdāt on 3 May 1879 as the fifth of six sons and he was baptized within the week before he received his Confirmation on 19 November 1893. From his adolescence he felt attracted to the traits and example that the Franciscans demonstrated but had a particular interest in the Capuchins; he asked to join them and was first sent to their educational institution at Saint Stephen's in Istanbul on 28 April 1895 where he carried out his novitiate period. He was vested in the Franciscan habit for the first time on 2 July 1899. It was also around this point that he felt an attraction to join the missions as he liked the idea of preaching and administering the sacraments in different places.