On March 21, 2019, a prayer initiative will be organized by the Diocese of Rome and Sant’Egidio Community for the martyrs of our time, including numerous missionaries, but also laymen, pastors and Christians of all the Confessions, announced the Vicariate of Rome on March 15. The prayer will be presided over by the Cardinal Vicar of Rome Angelo De Donatis.
A march will be accompanied by the recitation of the missionary chaplet and the Litany of Martyrs, which will begin at 6:00 pm at the Colosseum and arrive at the Saint Bartholomew Basilica, where the Vigil will be held.
A candle will be lit for each named martyr, “which enables the light of Easter to be seen also at the moment of death and of suffering,” reads the press release. Orthodox and Evangelical representatives, as well as young people from different continents will take part in this initiative.
“In 2018, some 40 witnesses were killed: 35 priests, four laymen and one seminarian. We have chosen to start from the Colosseum because it’s a symbol of martyrdom, a place where hundreds of Christians died and where it’s no accident that the Way of the Cross is held each year by the Pope. While the Basilica of Saint Bartholomew houses the new 20th and 21st centuries martyrs identified by Saint John Paul II and entrusted to Sant’Egidio Community,” stressed the Auxiliary Bishop of the Center and Secretary General of the Vicariate, Monsignor Gianrico Ruzza.
