Pope Leo XIV proclaimed seven new saints on Sunday, 19th October before a large gathering at St. Peter’s Square. These seven new saints include the first saints from Venezuela and Papua New Guinea and a former Satanist who underwent a dramatic conversion to become an “apostle of the rosary.”
“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.”
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 were the first to be declared as saints from Venezuela.
Among the new saints were also two martyrs. 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. To Rot defied Japanese authorities who permitted polygamy, defending Christian marriage until his death.
St. Ignatius Maloyan, an Armenian Catholic archbishop, who was executed during the Armenian genocide after refusing to convert to Islam, was also declared a saint. After the crowd prayed the Litany of the Saints, Pope Leo XIV pronounced the canonization formula in Latin, amidst the cheers of the crowds.
Another well-known saints among 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.
Three women were also declared saints. In addition to Venezuela’s St. María del Carmen Rendiles Martínez, the Italian foundress St. Vincenza Maria Poloni was also canonized. Poloni 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.
Pope Leo also canonized St. Maria Troncatti, an Italian Salesian sister who spent 44 years as a missionary among the Indigenous Shuar people in Ecuador’s Amazon rainforest. Known affectionately as “Madrecita,” or “little mother,” she served as a nurse, surgeon, and catechist with missionary zeal.
The canonization coincided with World Mission Sunday. “The Church is entirely missionary, but today we pray especially for those men and women who left everything to bring the Gospel to those who do not know it. They are missionaries of hope among the people. May the Lord bless them,” the Pope said.
