Ignace Maloyan
1869-1915 19th century Feast day: June 11
The quiet refusal, said once and never taken back.
Who was Ignace Maloyan?
Armenian Catholic archbishop of Mardin in Upper Mesopotamia, at a time when his community could feel the worst coming. On 3 June 1915 he was dragged before the head of the gendarmerie with dozens of notables and offered his life if he would go over to Islam. He refused, was beaten, then marched out on the road to Diyarbakır with several hundred men of his community; he is reported to have given them communion along the way. He was shot apart from the others, at forty-six.
In their own words
If Jesus Christ, my Lord and my God, was crucified for me, why should I not be ready to die for him?