Pope Francis proclaims six new saints as he tells the faithful ‘in the twilight of our lives we will be judged on our love’
Pope Francis canonised an Indian priest and an Indian Carmelite nun on Sunday along with four other Italian blesseds.
The Pope told the crowds in St Peter’s Square said that the new saints “responded with extraordinary creativity to the commandment of love of God and neighbour.”
He added: “Their preference for the smallest and poorest was the reflection and measure of their unconditional love of God.”
He went on to add: “In the twilight of life we will be judged on our love for, closeness to and tenderness towards our brothers and sisters. Upon this will depend our entry into, or exclusion from, the kingdom of God: our belonging to the one side or the other. Through his victory, Jesus has opened to us his kingdom. But it is for us to enter into it, beginning with our life now, by being close in concrete ways to our brothers and sisters who ask for bread, clothing, acceptance, solidarity. If we truly love them, we will be willing to share with them what is most precious to us, Jesus himself and his Gospel.”
The canonisation Mass largely followed the post-conciliar rite of canonisation introduced by Paul VI, rather than the rite Benedict XVI introduced two years ago, which was based on the rite used during Pius XII’s reign.
Among the new saints are an Indian priest and social reformer, a Keralan mystic nun, the former Bishop of Vicenza and three members of the Franciscan order.
The six saints are: St Giovanni Antonio Farina (1803-1888), an Italian bishop who founded the Institute of the Sisters Teachers of Saint Dorothy, Daughters of the Sacred Hearts; St Kuriakose Elias Chavara (1805-1871), a Syro-Malabar priest in India who founded the Carmelites of Mary Immaculate; St Ludovico of Casoria (1814-1885), an Italian Franciscan priest who founded the Gray Sisters of St. Elizabeth; St Nicola Saggio (Nicola da Longobardi, 1650-1709), an Italian oblate of the Order of Minims; St Euphrasia Eluvathingal (1877-1952), an Indian Carmelite of the Syro-Malabar Church; and St Amato Ronconi (1238-1304), a Third Order Franciscan who founded a hospital for poor pilgrims.
