Pope Francis has canonised Franciscan Pedro Nolasco Soler Méndez, marking the first saint born in Lorca. Soler, martyred 164 years ago in Syria, was elevated to sainthood along with the Damascus martyrs, killed in 1860 during an evangelization mission.
The canonisation ceremony in St. Peter’s Square saw attendance from over 200 Lorca citizens, including Minister of the Presidency Félix Bolaños, Mayor Fulgencio Gil, councillors from the PP, PSOE, and Vox, and the Bishop of Cartagena, José Manuel Lorca Planes, leading a large group of priests.
Lorca will hold a thanksgiving mass on November 3 at the church of San Cristóbal, where Soler was baptized in 1827. Plans include creating a wooden statue of the saint for the temple and republishing his biography. Soler, a Franciscan who was decapitated at 33, is venerated in several Lorca churches.
Soler received his early education at the Franciscan convent of San Diego, which was closed by the 1835 dispossession law. On June 30, 1860, he and ten other Christians were arrested, tortured, and killed by Druze, an Arab esoteric religious group, during a riot. They were beatified by Pius XI on October 10, 1926. Pope Francis announced the canonisation on May 23, alongside seven Franciscan brothers and three laypeople.
