The Catholic Church in Sri Lanka has said that the Vatican has recognised 167 of its members killed in the 2019 Easter Sunday suicide bombings as witnesses of faith, a designation given to individuals who die for their religious beliefs.

The attack was carried out by suicide bombers influenced by the Islamic State.

The announcement was made during a vigil at St. Anthony’s Church in Colombo, one of the sites attacked in the coordinated bombings. 

The vigil, attended by hundreds of people including religious leaders from Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim and Christian communities, marked the sixth anniversary of the deadly attacks that left more than 260 people dead, including 42 foreign nationals.

Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, the Archbishop of Colombo, told attendees that Cardinal Marcello Semeraro, head of the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, had added the names of the 167 Catholic victims to its official register. 

The Vatican acknowledged the victims for having died “due to violent opposition to their faith motivated by odium fidei — hatred of the faith.”

They have been entered “in the catalogue of the witnesses of the faith in its order book, considering the context of their heroism,” Ranjith said. He added that seven victims of other faiths were also “respectfully remembered.”

The designation comes under a new category established by Pope Francis in 2023 for individuals killed while professing their Catholic faith.

The Vatican created a special commission to document such cases, placing them alongside officially recognised martyrs who may one day be candidates for beatification or sainthood.

On 21 April 2019, Islamic State-inspired militants from the local extremist group National Thowheed Jamath carried out near-simultaneous suicide bombings at three churches — St. Anthony’s in Colombo, St. Sebastian’s in Negombo and Zion Church in Batticaloa — as well as three hotels in the capital.

The Catholic Church has continued to demand a full investigation into the attacks.

This includes renewed calls for transparency after a documentary last year aired an interview with a man claiming to have arranged a meeting between National Thowheed Jamath and a senior state intelligence official. 

The meeting allegedly involved plotting the attacks to instil fear and instability, ultimately benefiting then-presidential candidate Gotabaya Rajapaksa.