Andrea Santoro was born on September 7, 1945 at Priverno in Italy. Ordained priest for the Diocese of Rome in 1970, Andrea served as parish priest at multiple Roman parishes.
In 2000, Andrea volunteered for the Fidei Donum mission ('Gift of Faith', the Vatican program for diocesan priests to serve in mission territories) — being assigned to the Anatolian Catholic Church in Turkey.
For 6 years (2000–2006), Andrea served at Urfa and Trabzon in the Turkish Anatolian region — the tiny remnant Catholic community in the overwhelmingly Muslim Turkey.
Andrea undertook the vocation of Christian-Muslim dialogue and personal witness to the Turkish Muslim majority.
On February 5, 2006, during the Sunday afternoon prayer at the Church of Santa Maria in Trabzon, Andrea was shot in the back by a 16-year-old Turkish Muslim youth — the reaction to the February 2006 Danish cartoon controversy.
Andrea's last words as he fell were: 'Signore, perdonali, non sanno quello che fanno' ('Lord, forgive them, they know not what they do').
The cause of beatification was opened by Cardinal Agostino Vallini of Rome on October 5, 2013.