Leo XIV encourages people in Cordoba to be saints “in the dairy and in the office”

From Córdoba, the country's geographic center, Pope Leo XIV gave thanks this Tuesday for the saints and blessed that Argentina has produced. The city, heir to the first episcopal see established in the country, has been, in the Pope's words, “a land of saints”: “Through its convents and churches, through its streets and hospitals walked men and women who, in love with Jesus, gave their lives for the Gospel.”.

The Pope flew early this morning from Buenos Aires and, before the celebration on the esplanade of the Military Aviation School, toured the grounds in the popemobile among the 650,000 faithful gathered. The image of the Poor Christ, which Father Brochero himself commissioned from his sickbed, presided over the celebration. According to Leo XIV, the face of the image “artistically captures the features of this people.” Also present in the sanctuary was the image of Our Lady of the Rosary of the Miracle, patron saint of the city, which the Pope incensed during the celebration.

Under the protection of Saint Leo the Great

The Mass coincided with the feast of the first of the pontiffs who bore his name, and the Pope wished to entrust himself to him in the homily: “I now also make my own this exhortation of Saint Leo the Great, whose liturgical memory we celebrate today and to whose protection I entrust myself: ‘Recognize, O Christian, your dignity, for you share in the divine nature, and do not wish to return to the former vileness with a depraved life’.”.

From there, the Pope emphasized that all the baptized are called to holiness, a call that “is always missionary,” and that the best way to transmit the faith is through one’s own life. To underscore this, he quoted the words that Saint John Paul II spoke in 1987 at Vélez Sarsfield Stadium in Buenos Aires: “The world expects from us a commitment of life and a witness of prayer.” This, he added, “demands total, unwavering adherence to Jesus Christ.”.

A saint with an Argentinian accent

To speak about Argentine saints, the Pope invoked the landscape surrounding the city: “Just as the Córdoba mountains are distinguished by the beauty and harmonious variety of their shapes and colors, so too are the saints and blesseds characterized by having received different charisms and missions.” Among the saints “with an Argentine accent,” he highlighted the union between a passion for the Gospel and a commitment “to building a fraternal and supportive homeland.”.

His review began with Saint José Gabriel del Rosario Brochero, the priest from Córdoba whose life was transformed by the Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius. He said of him that he spent his energy proclaiming the Gospel “with no other weapons than the crucifix and the holy rosary.” Alongside him, he placed Saint María Antonia de Paz y Figueroa, known as Mama Antula, who “tirelessly traveled the land of this country” with one guiding principle: “to go where God is unknown, in order to make Him known.”.

The list continued with martyrs, including Saint Héctor Valdivielso Sáez and the blessed martyrs killed during the Spanish Civil War and in the provinces of La Rioja and Salta, and with pastors such as Friar Mamerto Esquiú and Cardinal Eduardo Pironio. He also expressed gratitude for the consecrated life and for lay people who lived their faith “in the simplicity of everyday life,” such as Saint Artemides Zatti and the blessed Ceferino Namuncurá and Laura Vicuña.

Saints in everyday life

In the final part of his homily, the Pope addressed the faithful directly, passing on to them the torch of all those saints: “Today it is up to us to follow the luminous trail of holiness they have left us. We celebrate this Holy Mass for the sanctification of the Argentine people, for the sanctification of all of you. Open your hearts and, with God's grace, go and be saints: in school and in the town square, with your family and friends, in the countryside and in the city, on the dairy farm and in the office. Go and evangelize!” In Argentina, a dairy farm is an image closely linked to rural life in Córdoba province.

At the end of the celebration, the Archbishop of Córdoba, Cardinal Ángel Sixto Rossi, thanked the Pope for a Mass “centered on this grace of holiness.” The Jesuit recalled that for Argentinians, the saints are “almost, we might say, part of our family,” and expressed his hope that these days would be for many “that encounter or re-encounter with God.” Leo XIV presented the archdiocese with a chalice as a gift and continued his day in Córdoba before returning to Buenos Aires in the afternoon.