Cosma Spessotto
Cosma Spessotto, OFM (28 January 1923 – 14 June 1980) was an Italian Catholic priest of the Order of Friars Minor. He was sent to serve in the foreign missions in El Salvador in 1950, where he aided the faithful through evangelization and the construction of churches.
Spessotto – like the then-Archbishop of San Salvador Óscar Romero – spoke out against injustices on the part of the junta of El Salvador which caused him to receive a number of death threats. He was killed in 1980 in the church where he served as pastor, just prior to the celebration of Mass, shot at point blank range.
His cause for canonization was approved in 1999 under Pope John Paul II when he became titled as a Servant of God. On 26 May 2020, it was announced by the Holy See that Pope Francis had approved his beatification, with the date of the ceremony to be determined once the COVID-19 pandemic had passed while it was later announced on 27 August 2021 that the beatification rite would be celebrated on 22 January 2022. He would be beautified in San Salvador on January 22, 2022.
In the Martyrology
- June 14 Blessed Cosma (Sante Spessotto), priest and martyr