On Saturday, a commemorative prayer program took place to mark the 81st anniversary of the partisans' murder of 66 Franciscans in Herzegovina, of whom 50 are now considered 'Servants of God.' In 1945, an unprecedented crime occurred in the region when partisans executed 12 Franciscans found in a monastery in Široki Brijeg without any trial, leading them one by one to a war shelter where they were killed and subsequently burned. In just a few days, the partisans created 330 execution sites and graves within Široki Brijeg as they took control of the area.

This tragic event laid the groundwork for the murder of many other innocent Franciscans in locations such as Mostar, Čitluk, and Ljubuški. Among the 66 Franciscans, two were killed before 1945, while the remaining 64 were murdered between January and August of that year. Throughout World War II and its aftermath, a total of 2,189 people from the municipality of Široki Brijeg were killed, along with 7,151 from the West Herzegovina County and over 20,000 from Herzegovina as a whole. The ceremony included the lighting of 12 candles in memory of those 12 slain Franciscans.