Vatican ceremony includes the first two Venezuelan saints and the first from Papua New Guinea
This Sunday (19), the pope created seven new saints, including doctor José Gregorio Hernández and nun Carmen Rendiles, the first two Venezuelans proclaimed saints. The moment was received with emotion in Caracas, where Catholic faithful gathered during the early hours of the morning to watch the broadcast of the ceremony in the Vatican.
In addition to the two Venezuelans, the Italian Bartolo Longo, who practiced satanic rites before converting to Catholicism, was also canonized; Papua New Guinea’s first saint, Peter To Rot; the Armenian bishop Ignazio Choukrallah Maloyan and the Italian nuns Vincenza Maria Poloni and Maria Troncatti.
Huge portraits of the seven were displayed in St. Peter’s Square as the pope left the basilica in a ceremonial white cassock, preceded by bishops and cardinals also dressed in white.
Cardinal Marcello Semeraro, prefect of the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, read the profiles aloud to the applause of the 55,000 people gathered in the Vatican.
Afterwards, Leo XIV read the canonization sentence, the decree with which they are officially declared saints. “May your intercession assist us in our trials and your example inspire us in our common vocation to holiness”, said the pontiff during the homily.
For canonization, three conditions are necessary: having performed at least two miracles, having died at least five years ago and having maintained an exemplary Christian life.
Venerated for many years in the , José Gregorio Hernández Cisnero was born on October 26, 1864 in the small Andean town of Isnotú, Trujillo state, in a rural country at the time.
After traveling to Caracas to study, he graduated in Medicine in 1888. He founded the National Academy of Medicine and fought the Spanish flu epidemic, which killed 1% of the country’s population. The doctor considered a miracle worker treated poor patients free of charge and, if necessary, gave money to help with medication.
He died in 1919, his image is part of Venezuela’s popular culture, where the most devout not only venerate him, but also imitate his clothing as an act of faith. A nine-meter statue of the new saint is being built in the state of Carabobo.
In turn, Carmen Elena Rendiles, the first Venezuelan saint, was a nun who was born in 1903 without her left arm and founded the Congregation of the Servants of Jesus. She passed away in 1977.
‘Satanic Priest’
Of the seven new saints, three are women. In addition to Rendiles, Vincenza Maria Poloni, founder of the Institute of the Sisters of Mercy of Verona in the 19th century, and Maria Troncatti, a nun of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians who arrived in Ecuador in the 1920s to dedicate her life to helping the country’s indigenous population, were canonized.
The pontiff also proclaimed the “satanic priest” Bartolo Longo (1841-1926) a saint. After going through an occult and deeply anti-clerical phase during his youth, this Italian lawyer returned to the Catholic faith and founded the Sanctuary of the Blessed Virgin of the Rosary of Pompeii.
Papua New Guinea also has, as of this Sunday, its first saint, Peter To Rot, a lay catechist murdered during the Japanese occupation in the Second World War.
Another canonized this Sunday, the Armenian bishop Ignazio Choukrallah Maloya, was also murdered, in this case by Turkish forces in 1915.
This was the second canonization of Pope Leo XIV since he was named leader of the Catholic Church on May 8.
Last month, the pontiff proclaimed saints the Italians Carlo Acutis, a teenager known as “God’s influencer” who died in 2006, and Pier Giorgio Frassati, considered a model of charity who died in 1925, aged 24.
