THE two Catholic missionaries who were slain late last month will be laid to rest tomorrow in adjoining graves at Corpus Christi, the Missionaries of the Poor complex at 3 North Street, downtown Kingston where a single bullet pierced their heads as they washed dishes with colleagues after having supper.

The funeral service for brothers Marco Laspuna, 22 and Suresh Barwa, 31 is scheduled to begin at 10:00 am at the Holy Trinity Cathedral, also on North Street. Archbishop of Kingston Lawrence Burke will officiate.

According to Father Ambrose, one of the senior priests in the religious order, the funeral service will be followed by a procession, in which mourners will walk behind the motor-vehicle-transported caskets on a route that will take them past Missionaries of the Poor’s five care centres downtown.

“The procession will first go to High holborn Street via South Camp Road after leaving Holy Trinity Cathedral,” Father Ambrose told the Observer yesterday. “From there, it will go down Tower Street, then to Fleet Street on to Laws Street, then to Hanover Street and come up to Corpus Christi for the interment.”

The interment, Ambrose said, will be private, with only the religious order’s members and Brother Marco’s family, who flew in from The Philippines this week. Brother Suresh’s family was unable to travel from India due to bureaucratic difficulties.

Up to yesterday, the police were still unable to say who shot the missionaries, why and from where.

The shooting occurred on October 27, some time after 9:00 pm while about five missionaries were washing dishes after a farewell supper for one of their colleagues.

Brother Suresh died on the spot, while Brother Marco died hours later in hospital.

At an October 30 mass at Corpus Christi, Father Ambrose said both missionaries had been honoured with God’s greatest gift – martyrdom.

“The gift that He (God) has given us is greater than any other gift, the gift of martyrdom,” said Father Ambrose. “It was not any of the high officials, but two young novices that God chose to bestow this gift upon, and I am also happy for that.”

Yesterday, Ambrose and Father Richard HoLung, the Missionaries of the Poor founder and leader, showed the Observer a large folder of condolence letters sent to the religious order from around the world. Most of the letters referred to the slain missionaries’ martyrdom.

“Traditionally, the blood of martyrs nourishes the growth and holiness of the Church,” wrote the Most Rev Donald J Reece, a Jamaican who is the bishop of St John’s, Antigua and Basseterre, St Kitts.

Father Ambrose explained that in the Catholic Church’s vocabulary, martyrdom is two-fold. “One is what we call blood martyrdom where someone is literally killed for the faith,” he said. “The other aspect is dry martyrdom, or white martyrdom where someone lays down his life in witnessing to Christ and Christ’s work. someone who continues to do Christ’s work despite danger to his life.”

“So the concept of martyrdom really means your life is given over to God. So brothers Suresh and Marco, their entire lives were in service of God and especially doing the work of Christ, which is to serve the poorest of people. So when they died, they were in that service.”

Tonight, a wake for the slain missionaries will be held at Holy Cross Church in Half-Way-Tree. The bodies will be available for viewing between 6:00 pm and 6:30 pm, Father Ambrose said. The service will close at about 10:00 pm.