- Justin McLellan, Vatican City (CNS). Pope Leo XIV will canonize Italian Blesseds Carlo Acutis and Pier Giorgio Frassati on Sept. 7, the Vatican has announced.
Meeting with the resident cardinals visiting Rome for an ordinary public consistory on June 13, Pope Leo approved the new date for the canonization of the two young blessed. He also set October 19 as the date for the canonization of seven others. This includes the first saints of Venezuela, José Gregorio Hernández and Carmen Rendiles. The Pope announced the dates in Latin.
Carlo Acutis, Eucharist and evangelization on the Web
The Blessed Carlo Acutis is a teenager known for his devotion to the Eucharist and the creation of an online exhibition of Eucharistic miracles.
His canonization had originally been scheduled for April 27, during the Jubilee of Adolescents. It was postponed following the death of Pope Francis on April 21.
Born in 1991 and raised in Milan, the beato Acutis used his technological skills to evangelize and stood out for his joyful faith and compassion for others before he died of leukemia in 2006 at the age of 15.
Pier Giorgio Frassati, deep spirituality and service to the sick
Blessed Frassati, born in 1901 into a prominent family in Turin, Italy, was admired for his deep spirituality, his love for the poor and his enthusiasm for life. A member of the Dominican Third Order, he served the sick through the Society of St. Vincent de Paul. He died at the age of 24 after contracting polio, possibly from one of the people he assisted.
The two Italian lay people will be the first saints to be proclaimed by the new Popewho was elected on May 8.
Change of dates
Although the Vatican had never officially set a date for Blessed Frassati's canonization, Pope Francis said last November that he intended to proclaim him a saint during the July 28-August 3 Youth Jubilee. The official website of Blessed Frassati's cause for canonization had said the canonization would take place on Aug. 3. On that date the Pope is scheduled to celebrate a Mass with thousands of young people on the outskirts of Rome.
Wanda Gawronska, Blessed Frassati's niece and longtime promoter of his cause for sainthood, told Catholic News Service that she was disappointed by the date change: "Thousands and thousands of people have tickets to come to Rome for the canonization in August."
Seven more on October 19: two Venezuelans
During the same consistory, Pope Leo also confirmed that seven other Blesseds will be canonized on October 19, World Mission Sunday. They are men and women from five countries, including martyrs, founders of religious congregations and lay people recognized for their heroic virtue and service. They are:
- Blessed Ignatius Maloyan, Armenian Catholic Archbishop martyr of Mardin, in present-day Turkey; born in 1869, he was arrested, tortured and executed in Turkey in 1915.
- Blessed Peter To Rot, martyred lay catechist, husband and father of Papua New Guinea. Born in 1912, he was arrested in 1945 during the Japanese occupation in World War II and was killed by lethal injection while in prison.
- Blessed Vincenza Maria Poloni, foundress of the Sisters of Mercy of Verona, Italy; lived from 1802 to 1855.
- Blessed María Rendiles Martínez, Venezuelan foundress of the Congregation of the Servants of Jesus. Born in Caracas in 1903, she died in 1977. She will be the first woman saint of Venezuela.
- Blessed Maria Troncatti, Salesian, born in Italy in 1883 and missionary in Ecuador in 1922. She died in a plane crash in 1969.
- Blessed José Gregorio Hernández Cisneros, Venezuelan physician born in 1864. He was a Franciscan of the Third Order and became known as "the doctor of the poor". He died in an accident in 1919 while on his way to help a patient.
- Blessed Bartolo Longo, Italian lawyer born in 1841. He had been a militant opponent of the Church and involved in occultism, but converted, dedicating himself to charity and the construction of the Pontifical Shrine of the Most Holy Virgin of the Rosary of Pompeii. He died in 1926.
