World

Pope Names 4 New Saints

June 4, 2007 / 8:38 AM EDT / AP

Pope Benedict XVI named four new saints Sunday from France, Malta, the Netherlands and Poland at a ceremony in St. Peter's Square attended by several heads of state and thousands of faithful.

The presidents of Ireland, Malta, Poland and the Philippines attended the canonization Mass for the three priests and a nun, whom Benedict praised as models for Catholics to emulate.

"Let us be attracted by their example, let us be guided by their teachings," he told the crowd, which filled St. Peter's Square for the two-hour Mass despite rain.

Among those honored was Sister Marie Eugenie de Jesus Milleret, a French nun who in 1839 founded the Religious of the Assumption to educate young girls. Today, the order has 1,200 nuns in 170 communities around the world.

Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo attended the Mass because a young Philippine child who was diagnosed with severe brain damage affecting her sight was cured after praying to Sister Marie Eugenie — the miracle the Vatican needed to canonize the nun.

The child, who is now 12 and attends an Assumption school in the Philippines, was present at Sunday's Mass and was part of the offertory procession bringing gifts up to the pope.

"May the example of St. Marie Eugenie invite men and women of today to transmit to the young the values that will help them become strong adults ... May young people not be afraid to welcome these moral and spiritual values, to live them with patience and fidelity," Benedict said in honoring the new saint.

Benedict also canonized:

The Rev. George Preca of Malta, who founded the Society of Christian Doctrine in 1932 as a group of lay people who teach the faith to others. Maltese President Edward Fenech Adami attended the Mass in honor of the new saint.

The Rev. Szymon z Lipnicy of Poland, a Franciscan monk who comforted Poles afflicted by the plague that broke out in Krakow from 1482-83 and died of it himself. Benedict canonized him with Polish President Lech Kaczynski in attendance as the saint's order, the Franciscan Friars Minor, celebrated the 800th anniversary of their founding.

The Rev. Charles of St. Andrew, who was born Karel Van Sint Andries Houben in the Netherlands in 1821. Although he never mastered the English language, Father Charles spent much of his life in Ireland and England, where he achieved fame as a miracle worker with thousands flocking to his monastery outside Dublin to seek his blessing. He was canonized after the inexplicable cure of a man from his hometown who was suffering from a painful gangrenous and perforated appendicitis. Irish President Mary McAleese headed the Irish delegation attending the Mass.
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