What Makes a Modern Martyr?

In the Margins article by parishioner Marsha Holmes: What Makes a Modern Martyr?

November 16 marks the 35th anniversary of the deaths of six Jesuits who stood up for the poor in El Salvador. They died lying face down in the grass, assassinated because they lived what Father Ignacio Ellacuria once exhorted in his writing: “Do everything so that liberty is victorious over oppression, justice over injustice and love over hate.” They lived to lift up those who were vulnerable and those who had been victimized. That was their only "crime."

The Salvadoran Civil War had been in process since 1979 and would not be resolved for another two years. During that period approximately 75,000 people were killed and another 8,000 disappeared. The United Nations attributed 85% of the war crimes to Salvadorean government agents and aligned death squads and 5% to the coalition of rebels, the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front.

In the days just before the execution, the vice president of El Salvador accused Ellacuria of having “poisoned the minds of our nation’s youth”, labeling the University of Central America as a refuge for terrorists. That denunciation was made despite the fact that Father Ellacuria had spent his career not only denouncing government-sponsored terrorism but terrorist activities led by the opposing rebels as well. As teachers at the university, the priests turned their backs on the status quo, opening up themselves and the university to support the poor. They had chosen to become one with the poor: they lived with the marginalized, they offered consolation and an education to those most in need. They taught people how to read and how to ascertain the reality of the political situation in El Salvador. Father Ellacuria was the primary target when the soldiers breached the door. The military took the housekeeper and her daughter hostage and continued into the priests’ home. They gathered up other priests in residence, hustled them into the garden, and forced them down. There the soldiers shot them in their heads. As Father Whitney wrote in 2022, it was “a small sign of the hatred and fear which they had for the ideas of these men.” The soldiers continued their rampage, shooting the witnesses to their carnage: the housekeeper Elba Ramos, her daughter Celina, just 15 years old, and Father Joaquin López, frail and recovering from surgery for cancer.

But these martyrs each live on every time we say their names and remember the principles that guided them. They continue to inspire – asking us to stand up, reach out and make a difference. To read the full text of Father Whitney’s reflection on the Jesuit martyrs of El Salvador, please visit: https://stignatiussf.org/news/in-the-margins-a-memory-in-flesh-and-blood

Marsha Holm, Parishioner, St. Ignatius Parish

Top photo: Ignacio Ellacuría, SJ, Spanish-Salvadoran Jesuit, philosopher, and theologian. Colorized 

Bottom photo: Paintings of Ignacio Ellacuría, SJ, Ignacio Martín-Baró, SJ, Segundo Montes, SJ, Juan Ramón Moreno, SJ, Joaquín López y López, SJ, Amando López, SJ, Elba Ramos and Celina Ramos by Mary Pimmel-Freeman