Blessed Frederick Bachstein and 13 Companions

Frederick Bachstein and his thirteen companions were Friars Minor whose martyrdom ripened in the struggle between the Catholic forces of the Emperor Rudolf II and the reformed estates of Bohemia at the beginning of the seventeenth century. From 1604 the friars had settled in Prague in the ruined friary of Saint Mary of the Snows, once the Carmelites'. They came from various regions of Europe and lived united in the love of Christ across the diversity of their cultures, preaching, administering the sacraments, visiting the sick and helping the poor in a city where most Christians belonged to non-Catholic confessions. The example of their poor and joyful evangelical life brought many back to the Catholic Church, and for this they were insulted, ill-treated and threatened in the streets.

On 15 February 1611 the army of Leopold of Habsburg laid siege to Prague, and the alarm of the reformed citizens broke out in violence: a crowd of some two thousand burst into the friary in the mistaken belief that Catholic soldiers were being sheltered there. Brother Christopher Zelt was the first killed, and the others followed, in the church, in the cells and at the altar.