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| Pope Francis |
Pope Francis proclaimed seven new saints
on Sunday, including Argentina’s “gaucho priest” who served as an
inspiration for the pontiff, and two people who died for their faith.
Portraits of the new saints hung high
among the columns of Saint Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican, where the
pontiff blessed seven relics of the saints at a solemn open-air ceremony
attended by some 70,000 faithful.
Many among the crowds were Argentines, some clutching little statues of poncho-wearing Jose Gabriel del Rosario Brochero.
Born 1849 in the province of Cordoba,
Brochero spent his days ministering to the poor and the sick, travelling
the region on the back of a mule, and building church schools.
Francis has praised the 19th century
Argentine as having had the “smell of his sheep” on him, a phrase he has
used in the past to describe the best pastors, those who mingle with
their flock and share their troubles.
Brochero cared for the sick during a
cholera epidemic in 1867 and would go on to contract leprosy, reportedly
after sharing with a sufferer a gourd of the herbal tea mate — a drink
Francis often sips when offered to him by pilgrims in the crowds.
‘Cry out day and night’
The pontiff said the saints were those
who could help people in difficulty, for they too had suffered, but
triumphed in their faith.
“The saints are men and women who enter
fully into the mystery of prayer. Men and women who struggle with
prayer. They struggle to the very end, with all their strength, and they
triumph,” he said.
“May we cry out day and night to God, without losing heart,” he added.
The youngest of the new saints is Jose
Sanchez del Río, a 14-year-old who was killed in 1928 in Mexico after
refusing to renounce his faith during the “Cristero” struggle between
Catholics and the anti-clerical Mexican government.
Salomone Leclercq also died defending
his faith. Born in 1745 in France to a family of merchants, he entered
the Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools — known as the
“De La Salle Brothers” — where he served as a teacher.
He was run through with a sword during
the French Revolution after refusing to take the oath of allegiance to
the new French government, and his murder, along with that of dozens of
other religious figures, was seen as driven by a “hatred of the faith”.
1,000 times a priest
France’s second new saint is the mystic Elizabeth of the Trinity, who died aged just 26 of Addison’s disease in 1906.
A gifted pianist, Elizabeth reportedly
refused several offers of marriage to join the Barefoot Carmelites near
her house and undertake a life of contemplation where she dedicated
herself to prayer and spiritual writings.
She is joined by Italian Alfonso Maria
Fusco, a priest from the southern city of Salerno, who was born to a
farmer in 1839 and went on to found the “Congregation of the Sisters of
St. John the Baptist”, known as Baptistine Sisters.
Fellow Italian Lodovico Pavoni from
Brescia founded the religious congregation “Sons of Mary Immaculate” and
taught the poor and downtrodden trades to help them put bread on the
table and faith to help them enter heaven.
And Spain’s Bishop of Palencia Manuel
Gonzalez Garcia, born in 1877, founded the “Congregation of the
Eucharistic Missionaries of Nazareth” as well as the “Disciples of Saint
John” and the “Children of Reparation”.
He enlisted in the seminary of Seville
at the tender age of 12, and it was there that he wrote: “If I would be
born a thousand times; a thousand times I would be a priest”.
(AFP)
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