Biographer Eileen Markey said that the four women were very aware that their work could put them in harm’s way.

Pope Francis' remarks from his general audience on Wednesday, Dec. 2.

In a Sept. 11 ruling, former Col. Inocente Orlando Montano, 77, was found to have planned and ordered the murders of the five Jesuits priests — all Spanish nationals — Nov. 16, 1989, at their residence on the Central American University campus.

Spain's sentencing of a former Salvadoran colonel for the murder of five Jesuit priests means the truth has surfaced, writes Father Manuel Acosta from San Salvador, but a rotten judicial system still causes pain.

A court in Spain on Friday sentenced a former Salvadoran colonel to 133 years in prison for the slaying of six Spanish priests in El Salvador more than three decades ago.

Almost four decades after their deaths, these women martyrs are remembered, not because of how they died, but as examples of Christian lives well-lived.