Saint of the Day – 5 April – Blessed Conrad of Saxony OFM (Died c1288) Friar, Missionary Preacher Martyr of the Order of Friars Minor. Born in Saxony (in modern Germany) and died by being strangled to death c1288 in the regions of modern Kurdistan.
The life and death of Conrad takes us to the time of the Crusades and the missionary ardour which animated the Franciscan Order. Conrad, driven by a deep desire to spread the Gospel, ventured into a distant and dangerous land, Hyrcania, located in modern Kurdistan.
The region of Hyrcania, although it had received th preaching of the Gospel since the first centuries of Christianity (4th-6th Century) had been partly influenced by the Eastern Schism and Muslim sympathies.
Conrad and his co-Franciscan Missiomary, Stephen, animated by a strong apostolic zeal, courageously dedicated themselves to preaching the Faith, facing the challenges of a complex religious and cultural atmosphere.
While they were going to the place where they usually held their sermons, the two Friars were attacked by a crowd of fanatics, who accused them of apostasy and condemned them to death. Their Martyrdom, by strangulation, occurred around 1288.
The Church has recognised these two Franciscans, Conrad and Stephen, as Blessed. Their liturgical memory is celebrated today, 5 April.
AnaStpaul 