Pope Leo XIV will canonise seven new saints on 19 October, recognising a diverse group of men and women from Venezuela, Turkey, Papua New Guinea, and Italy – each united by their faith amid adversity.
Among them is Blessed Bartolo Longo, once a Satanist priest who became a champion of the rosary after converting to Catholicism.
Also included are martyrs like Blessed Ignazio Maloyan and Blessed Peter To Rot, a married lay catechist from Papua New Guinea.
Other saints-to-be include Blessed María Carmen Rendiles Martínez, who founded a religious order despite being born without an arm, and Blessed Maria Troncatti, a missionary nurse dubbed “doctor of the jungle.”
Dominican Father Joseph Anthony Kress told OSV News the canonisations remind us that holiness isn’t about perfection – but perseverance.
He said the new saints show how inviting Christ into life’s struggles is where true holiness begins, even for laypeople living out religious charisms in daily life.
Father Kress told OSV News that those, like Blessed Longo and Blessed Hernández, prove that “we can still be inspired by the great charisms of these religious orders in the Catholic Church, and to be unafraid to pursue that; to be unafraid of committing to that.”
