The Martyrdom of Franciscan Friars, Marble relief depicts the first recorded martyrdom of Franciscan friars in the 13th century. According to the hagiography, Francis of Assisi had sent a group of friars to the Islamic controlled Morocco to evangelize. The group was eventually arrested for both refusing to stop preaching nor leave. While imprisoned, the friars resisted Islamic conversion and were eventually brought before the king and beheaded. Here, the relief depicts the Sultan enthroned in a courtyard with attendants around him. The friars are grouped to the left, one lifts his eyes heavenward with his hand open another kneels in prayer. In the center, an executioner stands with his scimitar raised and beheaded friars at his feet. In the background a landscape appears depicting a group of friars kneel and receive a blessing from a fellow friar. In the sky Saint Francis appears with two hands emerging. The relief belongs to a series of four other reliefs from the pulpit of Santa Croce, Florence that are remembered as the most important relief cycle in terracotta from the 15th century., 1480-1481

The Martyrdom of Franciscan Friars, Marble relief depicts the first recorded martyrdom of Franciscan friars in the 13th century. According to the hagiography, Francis of Assisi had sent a group of friars to the Islamic controlled Morocco to evangelize. The group was eventually arrested for both refusing to stop preaching nor leave. While imprisoned, the friars resisted Islamic conversion and were eventually brought before the king and beheaded. Here, the relief depicts the Sultan enthroned in a courtyard with attendants around him. The friars are grouped to the left, one lifts his eyes heavenward with his hand open another kneels in prayer. In the center, an executioner stands with his scimitar raised and beheaded friars at his feet. In the background a landscape appears depicting a group of friars kneel and receive a blessing from a fellow friar. In the sky Saint Francis appears with two hands emerging. The relief belongs to a series of four other reliefs from the pulpit of Santa Croce, Florence that are remembered as the most important relief cycle in terracotta from the 15th century., 1480-1481, spc-mss0088-s46-i0300, Box: 302. Contini-Volterra Photographic Archive, MSS.0088. Vanderbilt University Special Collections and University Archives. https://collections.library.vanderbilt.edu//repositories/2/archival_objects/580406 Accessed October 11, 2026.