Year 1572 (MDLXXII) was a leap year starting on Tuesday of the Julian calendar.
Joseph of Cupertino (Copertino), OFM Conv. (Italian: Giuseppe da Copertino; 17 June 1603 – 18 September 1663) was an Italian Conventual Franciscan friar who is honored as a Christian mystic and saint. According to traditional Franciscan accounts, he was "remarkably unclever", but experienced miraculous levitation and ecstatic visions throughout his life which made him the object of scorn. He applied to the Conventual Franciscan friars, but was rejected due to his lack of education. He then pleaded with them to serve in their stables. After several years of working there, he had impressed the friars so much with the devotion and simplicity of his life that he was admitted to their Order, destined to become a Catholic priest, in 1625.
Alban Butler was an English Roman Catholic priest and hagiographer.
Paschal Baylón was a Spanish Roman Catholic lay professed religious of the Order of Friars Minor. He served as a shepherd alongside his father in his childhood and adolescence, but desired to enter the religious life. He was refused once but later was admitted as a Franciscan lay brother and became noted for his strict austerities, as well as his love for and compassion towards the sick. He was sent to counter the arguments of the Calvinists in France but was chased out and nearly killed by a mob. He was best known for his strong and deep devotion to the Eucharist.
John of Cologne, was a friar and priest of the Dominican Order, born in the Electorate of Cologne, part of modern Germany. He later became a parish priest of Hoornaar, in the Spanish Netherlands. He was executed for his faith in 1572 and has been declared a martyr and saint by the Catholic Church.
John Jones, also known as John Buckley, John Griffith, Godfrey Maurice, or Griffith Jones was a Franciscan friar, Roman Catholic priest, and martyr. He was born at Clynnog Fawr, Caernarfonshire (Gwynedd), Wales, and was executed 12 July 1598 at Southwark, England. He is one of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales.
The Martyrs of Gorkum were a group of 19 Dutch Catholic clerics, secular and religious, who were hanged on 9 July 1572 in the town of Brielle by militant Dutch Calvinists during the 16th-century religious wars—specifically, the Dutch Revolt against Spanish rule, which developed into the Eighty Years' War.
Nicholas Pieck, O.F.M., "Nicolaas" or "Claes Pieck" in Dutch, was a Franciscan friar who was one of a group of Catholic clergy and lay brothers, the Martyrs of Gorkum, who were executed for refusal to renounce their faith in 1572.
John Joseph of the Cross - born Carlo Gaetano Calosinto - was an Italian priest and a professed member from the Order of Friars Minor who hailed from the island of Ischia. He had a reputation for austerity and for the gift of miracles and was appointed Master of Novices.
Saints Marcellinus and Peter are venerated within the Catholic Church as martyrs who were beheaded. Hagiographies place them in 4th century Rome. They are generally represented as men in middle age, with tonsures and palms of martyrdom; sometimes they hold a crown each.
Gregory Mary Grassi, O.F.M., was an Italian Franciscan friar and bishop who is honored as a Catholic martyr and saint.
The Three Martyrs of Chimbote were a group of two Polish Franciscan priests and one Italian missionary priest murdered in Peru in 1991 by the Shining Path communist guerillas. Michał Tomaszek and Zbigniew Adam Strzałkowski, and Alessandro Dordi were murdered on 9 August and 25 August 1991 respectively.
James of Sclavonia, also known as Giacomo Illirico, Giacomo of Bitetto or Jakov Varingez, was a Croatian friar of the Order of Friars Minor (Franciscans). He assumed the religious name "Giacomo". He was beatified on 29 December 1700 by Pope Clement XI and was proclaimed to be Venerable on 19 December 2009 by Pope Benedict XVI. He is patron of the town of Bitetto in Bari, Apulia, Italy.
The Order of Friars Minor is a mendicant Catholic religious order, founded in 1209 by Francis of Assisi. The order adheres to the teachings and spiritual disciplines of the founder and of his main associates and followers, such as Clare of Assisi, Anthony of Padua, and Elizabeth of Hungary, among many others. The Order of Friars Minor is the largest of the contemporary First Orders within the Franciscan movement.
Thomas of Tolentino was a medieval Franciscan missionary who was martyred with his three companions in Thane, India, for "blaspheming" Muhammad. His relics were removed to Quanzhou, China, and Tolentino, Italy, by Odoric of Pordenone. He is now venerated as a saint by the Roman Catholic Church, with his feast day on April 9.
Godfried Coart {Godfried van Melveren} was a Franciscan friar and one of the martyrs of Gorkum. He is honored as the first canonized saint of Belgium.
Andrew Wouters was a Dutch Catholic priest who served as pastor in Heinenoord, Hoeksche Waard. He was among the 19 Martyrs of Gorkum in 1572.
Bedřich Bachstein and his thirteen companions were a collective group of Roman Catholic priests and professed religious in the Order of Friars Minor. Four were Czech while there was one Spaniard, one Frenchman, four Italians, three Germans, and one Dutchman. Three were clerics in the order while another three were novices since the rest were all ordained priests. The Franciscans settled in Prague in 1604 and set out to administer the sacraments as well as to tend to the ill and the poor. The friars became known for their preaching despite the consistent threats levelled against them from those in non-Catholic denominations. The fourteen were slain in Prague after Emperor Rudolf II invaded Prague; the fourteen were surprised at the sudden attack on their convent at the Church of Our Lady of the Snows and were all slain at the hands of a Lutheran mob.
