Pope Francis canonised 14 new saints yesterday, including Franciscan friars killed in Syria for refusing to renounce their faith and convert to Islam. Source: CNA.
In a Mass in St Peter’s Square, the Pope declared three 19th-century founders of religious orders and the eleven “Martyrs of Damascus” as saints to be venerated by the global Church, commending their lives of sacrifice, missionary zeal, and service to the Church.
“These new saints lived Jesus’ way: service,” Pope Francis said. “They made themselves servants of their brothers and sisters, creative in doing good, steadfast in difficulties, and generous to the end.”
The newly canonised include St Giuseppe Allamano, a diocesan priest from Italy who founded the Consolata missionary orders, and St Marie-Léonie Paradis, a Canadian nun from Montreal who founded an order dedicated to the service of priests.
Also among the saints are St Elena Guerra, hailed as an “apostle of the Holy Spirit” and St Manuel Ruiz López and his seven Franciscan companions, all martyred in Damascus in 1860 for refusing to renounce their Christian faith.
The final three canonised are siblings, Sts Francis, Mooti, and Raphael Massabki, lay Maronite Catholics martyred in Syria along with the Franciscans.
Thousands of pilgrims prayed the Litany of the Saints together in St Peter’s Square before Pope Francis declared the 14 as enrolled among the saints “for the honour of the Blessed Trinity, the exaltation of the Catholic faith and the increase of the Christian life, by the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ, and of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul.”
“We confidently ask for their intercession so that we too can follow Christ, follow him in service and become witnesses of hope for the world,” the Pope said.
In his homily, Pope Francis highlighted how service embodied the lives of each of the new saints. “When we learn to serve,” he said, “our every gesture of attention and care, every expression of tenderness, every work of mercy becomes a reflection of God’s love. And so we continue Jesus’ work in the world.”
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Pope Francis canonises 14 new saints, including priests martyred in Syria (By Courtney Mares, CNA)
