The Other Cassandra Martyrs of Charity
Other Casssandra Martyrs of Charity The Cassandra Martyrs is a collective term used to designate a group of 12 missionaries; 7 nuns, a priest, 3 lay Church workers and a protestant pastor who offered their lives to save passengers of the MV Dona Cassandra which capsized off the Coast of Northeastern Mindanao on that fateful day of November 21, 1983 during a typhoon. The term "Martyrs of Charity" was first used by Pope John Paul II when he authorized the canonization of St. Maximilian Kolbe, a Franciscan Conventual Friar as a martyr of charity in October 1982. He over-ruled the recommendation of a theological commission which he created to determine whether Maximilian Kolbe could be canonized a martyr which voted that Kolbe's self-offering did not meet the theological and canonical criteria for martyrdom and proceeded canonizing St. Maximilian Kolbe not just as a confessor, but also as a martyr. Recently, Pope Francis has issued a motu propio "Maiorem hac dilect...