Nikola Tavelić and 3 companions

Nikola Tavelić was sent to Bosnia, where he preached for a dozen years alongside Deodat of Rodez, notably against the Bogomil heresy then established in the region. Around 1383-1384, Tavelić and Deodat joined the Franciscan convent of Mount Zion in Jerusalem, where Peter of Narbonne and Stephen of Cuneo were already living, serving the Custody of the Holy Land. On November 11, 1391, the four brothers appeared before the Qadi (Muslim judge) of Jerusalem and publicly read a carefully prepared memorandum, setting forth Christian doctrine and challenging Islam, in the presence of many Muslims. Invited to retract, they refused and were sentenced to death. After three days of imprisonment and abuse, they were again summoned to abjure on November 14; upon their renewed refusal, they were put to death, dismembered, and then burned, their remains being scattered to prevent any veneration. They are considered the oldest martyrs of the Franciscan Custody of the Holy Land.

The Franciscan tradition presents the act of the four brothers as a testimony assumed unto death. In his canonization homily on June 21, 1970, Paul VI emphasized that the four religious were moved by a double intention: to announce the Christian faith and to accept the risk of sacrificing their lives. The Pope interpreted their approach as a "testimonianza d'urto," a shock testimony motivated, according to him, by a sincere love for the Muslim world, and not by a spirit of hostility. Their repeated refusal to retract, despite imprisonment and abuse, is read as the expression of a radical fidelity to Christ confessed as the Son of God, in accordance with the Franciscan spirituality of the imitation of the suffering Christ. The Roman Martyrology records that they confessed Christ with constancy and were delivered to the fire. This constancy in trial establishes their reputation for holiness and explains the persistence of their memory, particularly in Croatia and within the Order of Friars Minor.

The official recognition of the martyrdom took place in stages. Pope Leo XIII first confirmed, in 1889, the cult rendered to Nikola Tavelić alone (some French sources mention 1881, but the most authoritative sources retain 1889). In 1966, Paul VI extended the confirmation of the cult to the three other brothers, Deodat of Rodez, Peter of Narbonne, and Stephen of Cuneo. Finally, on June 21, 1970, in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, Paul VI solemnly canonized the four martyrs, nearly six centuries after their death which occurred in 1391 under the pontificate of Boniface IX. This canonization made Nikola Tavelić the first canonized saint of the Croatian nation. The liturgical feast of the four martyrs is set for November 14, the anniversary of their martyrdom (dies natalis). The sources do not mention any miracle specifically attributed to their intercession within the framework of the process, the file resting essentially on the recognition of the martyrdom.

The memory of the four martyrs remains vivid, particularly that of Nikola Tavelić, venerated as the first saint of the Croatian nation. His canonization in 1970 was celebrated in Rome in the presence of numerous Croatian pilgrims. Considered a link between Croatia and the Franciscan Custody of the Holy Land, he is honored in Jerusalem, where development projects have been carried out around the Holy Places guarded by the Franciscans, notably in the vicinity of the Cenacle on Mount Zion. A statue of Saint Nikola Tavelić was inaugurated in Jerusalem, and his memory is maintained by the Order of Friars Minor as one of the oldest canonized martyrs of the Custody of the Holy Land. In Croatia, several places of worship and institutions bear his name. As the remains of the martyrs were dispersed after their death, no significant bodily relics are preserved, which gives their veneration an essentially spiritual and memorial character.