Man who renounced Satanism, lay catechist, doctor among 7 new saints

Pope Leo XIV will canonize a new set of saints on Sunday, October 19.

The Archdiocese of New York describes canonization as the last step to sainthood that can only be achieved after at least two miracles attributed to the candidate's intercession during their determination and beatification.

The ceremony is conducted in a special Mass, which the pope himself will preside over.

According to the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), the new set of saints to be canonized was approved by the late Pope Francis.

Get to know the seven soon-to-be saints:

Ignatius Maloyan

Ignatius Maloyan was an Armenian Catholic archbishop of Mardin who had been executed for refusing to renounce his Christian faith during the Armenian genocide in the Ottoman Empire. He had been well-known for his good reputation before World War I. In 1915, he and 27 other Armenian Catholic figures were dragged to court and demanded to convert to Islam, which Maloyan refused. He was later killed by Turkish chief of police Mamdooh Bek for staying firm to his Catholic faith.

He was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 2001.

Peter To Rot

Peter To Rot was a lay catechist from Papua New Guinea who was in charge of maintaining the faith of his village after their priest was forced into a Japanese labor camp during World War II. Under the Japanese occupation’s stricter laws regulating prayer and religion, To Rot had maintained the village’s Catholic faith in secret. Eventually, he was sent to a manual labor camp in 1944 for repeated disobedience and killed in 1945 by lethal injection.

He was beatified in 1995 by Pope John Paul II and is set to be the first saint from Papua New Guinea.

Vincenza Maria Poloni

Italian sister Vincenza Maria Poloni was well-known for serving the sick during the cholera epidemic in 1836, even risking her health to help save patients. In 1840, she lived similarly to a religious sister by dedicating her life to charity service and prayer. Poloni later founded the Sisters of Mercy of Verona in 1848. She died of a tumor in 1855.

Poloni was beatified by Pope Benedict XVI in 2008.

Maria del Monte Carmelo Rendiles Martínez

Born without a left arm, Maria del Monte Carmelo Rendiles Martínez had used a prosthetic arm that had caused her to be rejected by many religious congregations. She joined the Servants of the Eucharist in 1927. In 1965, she formed the Servants of Jesus in Caracas and served as the superior general from 1969 until her death from influenza in 1977.

She was beatified by Pope Francis in 2018 and will become Venezuela’s first female saint.

Maria Troncatti

Maria Troncatti was a missionary for the Shuar tribe in Ecuador’s Amazon forest. Following her experiences as a health practitioner and Red Cross nurse during World War I, Troncatti was known in the Amazon Forest village as “little mother,” who served as their health care provider and also spread the Catholic faith. She died in a plane crash in 1969.

Troncatti was beatified by Pope Benedict XVI in 2012.

José Gregorio Hernández Cisneros

A “doctor of the poor,” José Gregorio Hernández Cisneros was a physician who also served as a Third Order Franciscan. After falling ill during his time at a Carthusian monastery in Italy, Cisneros was ordered to return to Venezuela and determined it was his fate to be a layman, dedicating his life to being a doctor that serves the sick and devoting himself to academic research and helping the poor. He died in 1919 after being hit by a vehicle while picking up medicine for one of his patients.

Cisneros was beatified by Pope Francis in 2021.

Bartolo Longo

Bartolo Longo was an Italian lawyer and former Satanist priest who converted back to Catholicism. In his life as a Catholic, Longo dedicated himself to promoting the rosary and the Virgin Mary. He also built the Shrine of Our Lady of the Rosary of Pompeii, along with establishing schools and institutions in his efforts to advocate for social justice.

He died in 1926. He was beatified in 1980 as the “Apostle of the Rosary” by Pope John Paul II. —VBL, GMA Integrated News