Johannesburg, 15 September, 2020 / 9:10 pm (ACI Africa).
At the fifth anniversary of the beatification of Blessed Benedict Daswa, South Africa’s first potential saint, a Bishop in the country has hailed the martyr’s forgiving attitude toward his killers and and encouraged the people of God in the country to emulate him.
“He did not hold the sins of those who killed him against them,” Bishop João Noé Rodrigues of South Africa’s Tzaneen Diocese said Sunday, September 13 in reference to Blessed Daswa and added, “He died in prayer and the prayer recognized to have been in his heart and lips was the prayer of abandoning one’s life to God-Father into your hands I commit my spirit.”
Bishop Rodrigues who was speaking during Mass at Good Shepherd Catholic Church-Phalaborwa, the hometown of Blessed Daswa further said, “Benedict Daswa died in that spirit of not seeking revenge or of wanting his enemies to suffer for the sins, but at peace with life in his last piece of breath.”
That Blessed Daswa died having forgiven his persecutors, the 65-year-old South African Prelate said, is a “wonderful testimony” for the Christians of Tzaneen diocese as well as in South Africa and beyond.
“God forgives from the heart. An important teaching for us and it underlines why we acclaim Blessed Benedict Daswa, a martyr of Christ,” Bishop Rodrigues said.