Overview

• At a Mass in St. Peter’s Square on Oct. 19, Pope Leo XIV declared Ignatius Choukrallah Maloyan, Peter To Rot, Vincenza Maria Poloni, Maria del Monte Carmelo Rendiles Martínez, Maria Troncatti, José Gregorio Hernández Cisneros, and Bartolo Longo to be saints.
• Venezuela marked its first two saints—Hernández and Rendiles—with nationwide celebrations and livestreams, as church leaders in Rome and Caracas urged gestures of reconciliation, including the release of political prisoners.
• Cardinal Pietro Parolin led a thanksgiving Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica on Oct. 20 for the Venezuelan canonizations, calling the moment a summons to build peace on justice, truth, freedom, and love.
• Pope Francis had authorized canonization by recognizing widespread popular veneration for Hernández and Longo, a rare procedural exception to the usual requirement of verified miracles.
• The ceremony drew tens of thousands in Rome, with the pope praising the new saints as “lamps” who kept faith burning, while the roster also included Papua New Guinea’s first saint, Peter To Rot, and Armenian martyr Archbishop Maloyan.