Pope declares 10 new saints in front of 50,000 attending Sunday mass

Pope Francis, holding mass for 50,000 people in the Vatican Square, declared 10 new saints, with each name being cheered by the audience as it was read out.

In what is the largest gathering in the square since the start of the pandemic, the 85-year-old Pope spoke personally to the audience, regularly going off script.

Currently, suffering leg and knee pain, he was wheeled to the altar before limping to his seat, where he addressed the faithful. Afterwards, he limped over to greet the cardinals present.

Amongst those declared saints were Titus Brandsma, a member of the Carmelite religious order and served as president of the Catholic university at Nijmegen. He was well known for speaking out against Nazi ideology even before World War II and the German invasion of the Netherlands in 1940.

Throughout the Nazi occupation, he continued to speak out against anti-Jewish laws, and he publicly urged Dutch Catholic newspapers not to print Nazi propaganda. He was killed by the Nazi’s after being subjected to biological experimentation.

He was 61 dying a martyr in what the church calls “in hatred of the faith”.

Another famous new saint is Charles de Foucauld, a 19th century French nobleman, soldier, explorer, and geographer. He is said to have experienced a personal conversion and became a priest, living as a hermit amongst the poor Berbers in North Africa.

He published the first Tuareg-French dictionary, and he translated Tuareg poems into French. De Foucauld was killed during a kidnapping attempt by Bedouin tribal raiders in Algeria in 1916.

Amongst the remaining people named saints were two Italian priests, three Italian and one French nun, all of whom lived between the 16 and 20t centuries.

He also named Devasahayam Pillai, killed for converting to Christianity in 18th century India and Cesar de Bus, a 16th century French priest who founded a religious order, as saints.

All of these individuals have been attributed with miracles, however the church teaches that only God performs miracles. Saints, who are believed to be with God in heaven, intercede on behalf of people who pray to them.

Pope Franics said: “These saints favoured the spiritual and social growth of their nations and the whole human family, while sadly in the world today, distances are widening, tensions and wars are increasing.

The Pope who declared 10 new saints finished by saying: “World leaders had to be protagonists of peace and not of war.”

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