The Diocese of Paris has announced that 50 martyrs of the faith including more than twenty YCW and YCS leaders will be beatified at Notre Dame Cathedral, Paris on 13 December 2025.
Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich of Luxembourg who was also a YCW and YCS chaplain as a young priest will preside over the ceremony.
Their names include Raymond Cayré, Gérard-Martin Cendrier, Roger Vallée, Jean Mestre… These priests, seminarians, scouts or lay faithful, many of whom came from the Young Christian Workers (JOC), died for the most part in concentration camps where they had been sent because of their apostolate, an activity prohibited by the Hitler regime, reports note.
The announcement from the Diocese of Paris explains:
According to the technical term, [these 50 martyrs] all succumbed “because of the suffering of incarceration.” Some were executed, some even massacred, many were tortured. Still others died because typhus was causing considerable damage, and they were not treated, or worse: those who were contaminated were put in the “infirmary” and the so-called Nazi doctors carried out “experiments” to see how the contagion worked. Some lost their lives during the “death march.” When the Allies advanced, the Germans emptied the workers’ camps and made them leave on foot most of the time. Anyone who fell along the way was immediately killed. These martyrs died in terrible conditions, they lived through an ordeal. In the midst of this suffering, their extraordinary example of dedication is priceless.
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French YCW and YCS leaders to be beatified
Messe de béatification de Raymond Cayré, Gérard-Martin Cendrier, Roger Vallée, Jean Mestre et de leurs 46 compagnons (Diocèse de Paris)
La béatification des cinquante martyrs du nazisme aura lieu le 13 décembre à Notre-Dame (La Croix)
YCW and YCW martyrs (Joseph Cardijn Digital Library)
