Over 1,700 Christian martyrs verified since turn of the century, says Vatican

16th September 2026

A new Vatican commission meeting Rome has recorded the deaths of ‘Century of martyrdom’: Vatican commission has recorded death of over 1700 martyrs in the 21st century | Crux. Many more Christians are attacked or otherwise harassed over their faith than this. Aid to the Church in Need helps the Vatican to compile the figures.

The listing recognises both Catholic and non-Catholics who died for the faith.

Many of those may also satisfy the conditions for being canonised as saints such as a high standard of ordinary Christian life.

Historian Andrea Riccardi, vice-president of the Commission, said that the 21st century is a new era marked by the shedding of blood for the faith.

“To the question of whether we are facing a new time of martyrdom, we must answer yes. A new century of martyrdom, strongly intuited by Pope Francis. The time of martyrdom continues,” he said.

The continent of Africa as a whole has seen many Christians killed, with Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mozambique, Burkina Faso, and many other countries, all seeing high levels of bloodshed.

The congress will also look at the Holy Land, Europe, the Americas and Asia. The Vatican said that it has documented 304 martyrs in South America so far this century.
The Iona Institute
Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.

You can adjust all of your cookie settings by navigating the tabs on the left hand side.