Fr. Casimir Cypher

American Missionary Brutally Martyred in Honduras | Casimir Cypher | Catholic Saint Stories

Casimir Cypher was born into a devout Catholic Wisconsin family. He was a humble and compassionate priest who dreamed of serving the Lord in Latin America. He was brutally murdered in Honduras alongside a group of activist farmers and another priest, Fr. Ivan Betancourt.

A Life and testimony of a Conventual Franciscan Friar, who was a faithful Witness of the Gospel and the mission in Honduras.

“Fr Casimiro was visiting our community of El Carbón in San Esteban. I remember that a group of men went out to meet him in the neighboring Community, some of us were walking and others on horseback. After greeting Fray Casimiro, he got on a horse and we accompanied him for his arrival in the community”. Fragment of a witness in the village of El Carbón, San Esteban Olancho-Honduras.

The Conventual Franciscan Brothers of the Custody of María Madre de Misericordia in Central America, collecting documentary and testimonial evidence on the life, mission and testimony of Fr Casimiro Cypher, in the Communities of Gualaco and San Esteban in Olancho, Honduras. Places where our brother arrived as a missionary and gave his life on June 25, 1975, serving a Church that was being persecuted for announcing the Gospel.

Fr. Javier Guerra OFM Conv and Fr. Juan Alonzo Pagoada, OFM Conv (vice postulator), members of the Central American Custody, were visiting the communities where Fr. Casimiro became a witness to the Gospel from May 1 to 25, 2023, collecting and documenting testimonies from people who knew him.

During these days we had the opportunity to interact with local communities, ecclesial groups and movements, the media, and compare liturgical celebrations. In these spaces, the progress of the Diocesan Preliminary Process of the Cause has been announced, the importance it has for the faithful and the good of the Church that pilgrims in the Diocese of Juticalpa in Olancho. In addition to visiting the communities where Fr. Casimiro became a witness to the Gospel, parishioners were encouraged to appreciate the history of a missionary Church with a Franciscan spirit, commitment, generosity and testimony.

We continue to verify, according to the testimonies of the people who have shared with us, that Fr Casimiro enjoys a reputation for holiness and martyrdom in the Honduran Church. In order to strengthen the diocesan preliminary process of the cause, the communities have committed to praying for its progress, making Casimiro's life and mission known, as well as continuing to identify witnesses, collecting documentary evidence and other signs that favor that the fame of holiness and martyrdom is continuously growing. Thanks to the hospitality of the families, their simplicity and historical memory, Casimiro's life and testimony remains not only in his mind, but also in the hearts of those who knew him and who today hope that the Church will value this faithful witness and be proposed as a model for following Jesus for the Honduran Church.

Br. Juan Alonzo Pagoada,

OFM CONV Vice Postulator.

Bulletin Announcement 

Casimir Cypher 1941-1975

June 25 is the anniversary of the death of Fr. Casimir Cypher OFM Conv who was martyred in Honduras in 1975.  Like St. Francis, Fr. Casimir was known for his simple lifestyle and love for the poor, as he bathed in the river, ate rice and beans for his daily diet and visited over 40 parishes in the mountain by horseback to bring the Sacraments to the poor.   He even mirrored St. Francis’ Love for “Brother Sun and Sister Moon” in his poem “Be like the Sun.” And like St. Maximilian Kolbe who was arrested for being a Catholic priest, taken to Auschwitz where he was beaten and died in a starvation bunker with nine other prisoners,  Fr. Casimir also was arrested for being a Catholic priest, taken away with 12 others, where he was tortured and eventually killed and their bodies thrown into a well. May God reward him for his sacrifice and grace us with his canonization. 

Canonization Prayer :

Heavenly Father,

We thank you for Fr. Casimir Cypher,

A son of St. Francis of Assisi;

Who preached the Gospel to the poor

And loved all Creation.  

If it be your Most Holy Will,

We ask that you reward him for his martyrdom 

And bless us here on earth with the title of Saint. 

May Casimir intercede even now for (your intention). 

Grant his blessedness and our intention,

Through Christ our Lord.  Amen

Fr. Casimir Cypher, OFM Conv 1975d. Was martyred in Honduras. His cause for canonization has begun.  If you have any personal knowledge of him or received favors through his intercession,

Please contact :

The Minister Provincial

Conventual Franciscans of St. Bonaventure Province 

6107 N. Kenmore Av.  

Chicago, IL. 60660-2797

CasimirCanonization@marytown.com

Fraternal request :

Every Friar/Friary pray the Office of the Dead in Casimir Cypher’s memory,

Beginning with the Vigil of his death on Monday, June 24 through the day of his death June 25. 

Also it is requested, if possible to have a Mass in his memory June 25 in the parish or friary. It is suggested to use the Common for the Dead.  

Intercession at Mass :

May God reward Fr. Casimir for his martyrdom and grace the Church with his canonization.    We pray to the Lord. 

Suggested Homily for Casimir :

Homily for Casimir Cypher

Fr. Casimir was a simple man raised on a farm in Medford Wisconsin. 

He joined the Franciscans and was ordained a priest. 

As time went on he felt a strong desire to go to the missions and eventually requested to go to Honduras. 

This was 1974 at the beginning of the unrest between dictators and communists;  the wealthy landed and the desperately poor. 

All he wanted to do was to share the Gospel and the Love of God until one day,

When there was unrest in the city,

Casimir was arrested for being a Catholic Priest,

Taken to the city square, stripped and publicly beaten. 

Then along with 12 others he was taken to an isolated Farm house where he was tortured throughout the night, shot and then his body along with the others was thrown into a well and dynamited to cover it up. 

But through God's grace it was revealed and brought to light. 

That was 1975. 

But Casimir's life continues to speak to us. 

His was the path of the Holy Innocents. 

There are millions of innocent victims of war and terror, violence, crime and strife in the world everyday. 

children caught in the crossfire,  victims of war, refugees, people who disappear and are never seen again because of political or religious persecution. 

Who is the patron of these innocent?  

That is Casimir.  A simple Franciscan, priest and missionary; 

He lived an ordinary life, loving God and the people he ministered to until one day the extraordinary was asked of him. 

In the ordinary, daily life of each of us, there comes a moment of Grace –a time when we are called and given the opportunity to be extraordinary.

Fr. Casimir is that man who can help us answer that call when it comes. 

To go from the ordinary to the extraordinary.  

“Be the Sun You Were Created to Be”
By Dr. Mike Gable

These are the words from a meditation that Fr. Casimir Cypher, OFM Conv. wrote on the back of this plaque he carved from a local mahogany tree. His reflections have long guided me. His love for nature and ordinary and not-or-so ordinary peasants were akin to his role models, Jesus and St. Francis of Assisi. I was blessed to have served with him mountains of Honduras, Central America not long before his martyrdom in June 1975. He had just witnessed my wedding in January of that year.

It is an honor for me to share some of God’s “sunlight” I gained through Fr. Casimir in these coming blogs. I hope is that you too will be inspired to by his life of service seeking a more compassionate and just global society and a more verdant planet…with the expectation that this effort will promote his canonization case.

Honduras is located in the heart of Central America, with the Caribbean Sea on the north coast, Guatemala and El Salvador on the west, and Nicaragua on the southern border. It is about the size of state of Tennessee and is the most mountainous country in the area. Olancho, the largest state or department, has Juticalpa as its capital where the bishop’s cathedral is located. This is where Fr. Casimir was taken by the military and was later killed along with 12 others about 25 miles south west down the road at a cattle ranch, “Los Horcones.” Gualaco, a small village north, is where he lived and is found where the “A” is in the word Olancho. There were no roads for cars nor trucks to or from of the Gualaco until about the time of Casimir’s death. Consequently, he often walked or rode by horse back for weeks at time to visit his parishioners in their distant and scattered little hamlets with homes made of mud and sticks.

[See the source image]My next blog will provide a brief history of Honduras and of the valiant Franciscans in Olancho of which Fr. Casimir became a part.  This will lead into a backgrounder of his life and conditions that led to his tragic martyrdom.

St. Casimir, Pray for us and protect us!

Factors for Persecution of Franciscans in Olancho and Fr. Casimir’s Death

By Dr. Mike Gable

Brief History of Honduras:

Factors for Persecution of Franciscans in Olancho and Fr. Casimir’s Death

By Dr. Mike Gable

The history of Honduras, like much of Central America, has been a rugged one. Humans migrated from North into Central America around 10,000 BC. By 150 AD, the Mayan Indian civilization began to blossom and for the next 800 years this society developed a highly sophisticated writing system, impressive temples, art, mathematics, calendar and astronomical structures concentrated around the city/state of Copan.  It was linked with networks of roads connections other city states and other indigenous groups like the Lenca and Pech.

However, from 800 AD onward, this city and others gradually collapsed, and the inhabitants scattered due such factors as invasions from the north, cruel leadership, and ecological failures from over-farming. Yet many of their descendants lived on through today but often as the under-class of society.

Things changed forever on August 14th, 1502 when Christopher Columbus arrived on the Caribbean north coast of Honduras. For the next 300 years, Spanish conquistadors fought each  other crushed out the indigenous peoples and took control of their lands while millions died of Old-World diseases. Indians were forced into slavery to mine gold and silver and to produce timber and cattle products for export to fund European wars.  As a result, a small local wealthy white class emerged while the emaciated native people we often driven off their sustainable farms, a templet that is often still in place in much of Central America.

By the early 1820s, Central America nations broke away from Spain and for 15 years they form a political union of 5 states. Unfortunately, rival political and economic elites clashed for power causing this confederation to die.  For the next two centuries these rulers used their emerging armies to subdue peasants, while crushing efforts to develop political democracies and economic justice for all.  From 1838 until 1945 most Central Americas lived under dictatorships as mild forms of democratic revolutions and labor unions were decimated.

After 1850, great powers like Britain and the United States began to force their influence into the region seeking their own economic, geo-political and security interests. Government and business leaders (who were sometimes the same persons) were enticed by the possibility of construction a transisthmian canal and by the wealth to be gained from mining and timber. Through much of the 20th century, U.S. troops often intervened to support dictators like Samosa.  Eventually those who were producing and exporting coffee, bananas, cacao, cotton, sugar, and beef further concentrated their power and land ownership. Honduras was called the first true “banana republic” as the U.S. companies often controlled presidents and politicians in Honduras. The country became, in effect, an oligarchy.

All of this created even more popular discontent, poverty, and hunger among growing numbers of jobless rural and city workers in most of Central America by the mid-1900s. This rise of inequality stimulated resentment, anger, protests, and the formation of worker/peasant unions to redress these Central Americans’ grievances of injustice and exploitation. By 1970, the per capita income of peasants in Honduras as $100 a year.  50% of the babies in Gualaco, Olancho, where Fr. Casimir lived and served, died by the age of five from sicknesses attributed to malnutrition. The little graveyard was filled with baby bones. ...

In was into this oppressive and volatile situation that the Franciscans had been serving since the mid 1940s in the department (state) of Olancho. And factors that would lead to Fr. Casimir Cypher's death in 1975.

Who was Fr. Casimir Cypher, OFM Conv.

By Dr. Mike Gable

 

To understand the background to the life and martyrdom of Fr. Cypher, I provided the location and geography of Honduras where he served in the 1970s in my first blog. In the second, I briefly outlined Honduran history from the time of the indigenous Maya people, through tumultuous European invasion, and troubled political/economic years prior to Fr. Cypher’s arrival in 1973.

 

So now this blog I provide “snapshots” of his life. Michael Jerome Cypher was born on January 12, 1941 and was raised on a small cattle farm near Medford, Wisconsin with eight brothers and sisters. Raised in a devout Catholic home, Michael deeply loved his mother Elizabeth and the feeling was mutual. His older brother said he “was a very quiet and simple boy, very much down to earth, preferring to get his hands dirty to studies.” Michael studied at a Conventual Franciscan high school minor seminary and in 1959 went on to their novitiate in Lake Forest, Illinois where he took his religious name, “Casimir.” His superiors noted that he was a carefree fellow, a very likeable young man, sometimes mischievous, but with an impressive spirituality.

 

During theological studies, his fellow students noted that Casimir had little concern for burning religious and political issues of the 1960s while preferring cards games and a beer over hot debates. After his ordination in 1968, he served at St. Anthony’s parish in Rockford, Il where he was well liked, and where his carefree, generous reputation grew.  His draw to missionary ministry developed during that time and eventually he moved to a Spanish-speaking parish in Hermosa Beach, California to prepare for his new ministry in Honduras.

In October 1973, I had the honor of meeting Fr. Casimir at the landing strip near our mountain town of Gualaco in the cattle ranching state of Olancho, Honduras. As part of our Franciscan pastoral team with Fr. Emil Cook, OFM, Conv., Fr. Casimir would visit distant villages on horse-back celebrating God’s love, joy and hope though the Mass and the sacraments.  While he was happily welcomed, Casimir would learn of the overwhelming poverty of our peasant parishioners and the efforts of the bishop’s staff to seek social justice. Yet he preferred to keep to his pastoral ministry and stay clear of political issues.

 

Eventually these grueling trips would wear down Casimir’s heath which forced him to return the U.S. for medical treatment in October 1974. But by early 1975, after he witnessed my wedding in Cincinnati, he returned to Honduras, knowing that societal turmoil was building.  Peasant unions around the nation were peacefully demanding legal status and the implementation of land reform but without the cooperation from the military government who were supported by wealthy ranch owners. Fr. Casimir had now been appointed pastor of San Esteban, a town 40 miles north of Gualaco.

 

It was June 24, 1975 when Fr. Casimir needed to drive a sick parishioner to Juticalpa, the capital of the state of Olancho. It was there that Fr. Casimir was taken by soldiers the following day and rounded up with 12 other church and peasant union leaders to be killed at by Honduran military personnel and cattle ranch leaders like Mel Zelaya.