Pope Leo XIV proclaimed seven new saints yesterday before an estimated 70,000 people in St Peter’s Square, including the first saint from Papua New Guinea, St Peter To Rot. Source: CNA.
“Today we have before us seven witnesses, the new saints, who with God’s grace, kept the lamp of faith burning,” Pope Leo XIV said in his homily. “Indeed, they themselves became lamps capable of spreading the light of Christ”
“May their intercession assist us in our trials and their example inspire us in our shared vocation to holiness,” he said.
St Peter To Rot, a lay catechist martyred in Papua New Guinea during the Japanese occupation in World War II, became the country’s first saint. St Peter To Rot defied Japanese authorities who permitted polygamy, defending Christian marriage until his death.
Venezuela also has its first two saints, with the Pope canonising St José Gregorio Hernández Cisneros, known as “the doctor of the poor,” and St María del Carmen Rendiles Martínez, a religious sister born without her left arm who went on to found the Servants of Jesus in Caracas in 1965.
After the crowd prayed the Litany of the Saints, Pope Leo pronounced the canonisation formula in Latin, greeted by enthusiastic cheers.
Among the most well-known of the new saints is St Bartolo Longo, a 19th-century Italian lawyer who abandoned his Catholic faith for Satanism before returning to the Church with zeal. After his conversion, Longo dedicated his life to promoting the rosary and built the Shrine of Our Lady of the Rosary in Pompeii, now one of Italy’s most beloved Marian pilgrimage sites.
The other saints canonised yesterday were:
Martyr St Ignatius Maloyan, an Armenian Catholic archbishop who was executed during the Armenian genocide (1915-16) after refusing to convert to Islam;
St Vincenza Maria Poloni, who founded the Sisters of Mercy of Verona and is remembered for her tireless service to the poor, including at the risk of her life during the cholera epidemic of 1836
St Maria Troncatti, an Italian Salesian sister who spent 44 years as a missionary among the Indigenous Shuar people in Ecuador’s Amazon rainforest.
FULL STORY
Pope Leo XIV canonizes 7 new saints, including first from Venezuela and Papua New Guinea (By Courtney Mares, CNA)
RELATED COVERAGE
A New Saint and World Mission Sunday Celebrated (Broken Bay Diocese)
Brisbane PNG Catholics receive special blessing before Blessed Peter To Rot’s canonisation (The Catholic Leader)
Local Papua New Guinean community celebrates Peter To Rot’s imminent canonisation (Melbourne Catholic)
