On May 15, for the first occasion since October 2019, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, St. Peter’s Square will serve as the venue for a canonization. This interval of two-and-a-half years (canonizations at the Vatican under Pope Francis usually occurred at least annually) was marked solely by the pontiff in 2021 when he recognized the Italian Third Order Dominican Margaret of Castello, advocate for individuals with disabilities, a holy figure by way of the process known as equivalent canonization.

Thus, the forthcoming canonizations to be proclaimed by Pope Francis represent a significant event — and a celebratory one, particularly following the challenges of the pandemic and currently, during the conflict in Ukraine. Ten individuals will be recognized as saints, raising the cumulative total to 909 saints canonized during the papacy of Pope Francis. The newly declared saints predominantly include priests and female religious figures, with only a single representative from the secular lay community.

1. St. César de Bus

(1544-1607)

In his early years, César de Bus was seen by many as the life of the gathering. However, when he encountered a grave illness, César felt called to pursue a more profound spiritual existence. Determined to be ordained as a priest, he received his holy orders in 1582 and was driven by a passion to teach ordinary Catholics. César viewed the significant absence of catechesis within the Church as both a disgrace and a hindrance to the Church’s vitality and mission. Motivated by the catechetical fervor and virtuous life of the contemporary reformer St. Charles Borromeo, César played a role in the reforms set in motion by the Council of Trent (1545-63) by instructing the faithful in neglected, marginalized areas in France. He invited others to join his mission and began to expand its reach. He established a society of like-minded priests dedicated to educating the faithful and also initiated a corresponding women’s congregation. For his vision, creativity, and missionary spirit, César is celebrated as one of the Church’s foremost catechists.

2. St. Devasahayam Pillai

(1712-52)

Set to be the first Indian layperson to be canonized, Neelakanda Pillai was raised in a wealthy family and brought up in the Hindu faith. As a young adult, he entered the service of the Travancore royal family in southern India, gradually assuming duties related to the governance of the state. A Dutch naval officer — who was vanquished by the Travancore military, captured, and then spared on the condition that he would join Travancore’s forces — introduced Neelakanda to the Faith. When he was baptized, he adopted the name Devasahayam, which translates to Lazarus. His wife and other relatives also converted to the Church. Many individuals in the kingdom turned against Devasahayam, later accusing him falsely of treason, which led to his imprisonment and three years of severe torture. Convicted to death, Devasahayam endured a brutal martyr’s fate. Despite opposition from within the Hindu community — which claimed that there were no surviving records of official religious persecution in Travancore — church documents indicate that the conversion of palace officials was deemed unacceptable. This eventually allowed for Devasahayam to be recognized as a martyr in 2012.

The Saint of the Pandemic

Through an equivalent, or equipollent, canonization — meaning without the ordinary juridical process of declaring a saint, including the necessary second miracle — Pope Francis declared Margaret of Castello a saint on April 24, 2021. Born to a noble family, blind from birth, also having suffered from a deformed spine and dwarfism, St. Margaret is a patroness of persons with disabilities and also of those working to defend the sanctity of life. Early in life, she experienced mistreatment and marginalization by her parents, who were ashamed of her disabilities. Margaret was never said to become resentful or embittered by her parent’s abandonment after the miracle of her physical healing they sought for her on a pilgrimage never came to fruition. For many years, she was cared for by a host of poor families in Castello, Italy. And with their support, Margaret was able to teach children about the Faith and even open a sort of day care to help working parents with children. Dominican friars took her under their spiritual care, and she became a third order Dominican. She died April 12, 1320. In the United States, a shrine has been dedicated to her since the 1930s in Columbus, Ohio, where she is venerated with special devotions each Wednesday and her intercession is sought by pilgrims.

3. St. Anne-Marie Rivier

(1768-1838)

Although measuring just 4-feet-4-inches in height as an adult, a consequence of broken bones from a childhood mishap, St. Anne-Marie was an impactful missionary, referred to as the “female apostle” by Blessed Pope Pius IX for “her spirit is robustly theological and distinctly apostolic.” Denied entry to a convent due to her frail health, Anne-Marie ran her own school for a period. Following the French Revolution, which closed all religious communities and their institutions, Anne-Marie acquired a shut convent school. In the attic of that facility, on Nov. 21, 1796, she committed her life to God alongside five other women. This marked the inception of a new congregation, the Sisters of the Presentation of Mary. The sisters of Anne-Marie engaged in the educational mission, particularly focused on the welfare of orphans, as well as providing pastoral support to those confined at home. The congregation established numerous apostolates in the United States, including the Catholic liberal arts college that is currently known as Rivier University in Nashua, New Hampshire.

4. St. Luigi Maria Palazzolo

(1827-86)

A cleric from the Italian diocese of Bergamo, St. Luigi Maria was beatified by a former cleric of the same diocese, Pope St. John XXIII. As the youngest of eight sons, St. Luigi Maria faced numerous challenges in his early years, including the loss of his father when he was just 10. This incident surely ignited his compassion for children without guardians, to whom he devoted a significant portion of his life’s mission. Luigi Maria founded several orphanages, such as the Little House of Divine Providence and the Work of St. Dorothy to support abandoned girls. With the assistance of Venerable Maria Teresa Gabrieli, Luigi Maria also established the Sisters of the Poor (Palazzolo Institute). St. Luigi Maria’s existence was marked by his dedication to offering himself in whatever manner necessary to assist others in leading improved lives. He passed away while uttering “Jesus Christ,” whom he served with unwavering faith among the destitute and marginalized.

5. St. Maria Francesca Rubatto

(1844-1904)

Born in Italy, Maria Francesca experienced the loss of her father at the tender age of 4 and received a marriage proposal during her teenage years. She rejected the young admirer and made a commitment to remain a virgin. In Turin, a wealthy woman aided her in her mission to spread the Faith, assist the impoverished, and visit the ill. One day, when she rushed to aid a laborer injured while constructing a convent in Loano, Italy, the nascent congregation seeking a leader recognized that God was guiding them to St. Maria Francesca. She was persuaded to join the group and was appointed their superior by the local bishop after taking her vows in 1885. Her calling led her across the globe to South America, where she played a pivotal role in establishing the community now referred to as the Capuchin Sisters of Mother Rubatto. It was in Uruguay’s capital, Montevideo, where she spent more than a decade of her later years that St. Maria Francesca succumbed to cancer.

6. St. Charles de Foucauld

(1858-1916)

Born into French aristocracy in Strasbourg, France, St. Charles de Foucauld lost both parents by the time he was 6. Initially, his paternal grandmother took care of him and his sister, but after she passed away, they were brought up by their maternal grandparents. His maternal grandfather — a colonel who is fondly remembered as a nurturing father figure — greatly influenced the young St. Charles. In later years, the future saint reflected on his respect for his grandfather’s intellect and the “endless affection” that enveloped his formative years with “a sense of love.” The family’s affluence allowed him to pursue an education — which assisted in addressing his irritable nature and shyness — despite facing periods of ill health.

In the later stages of his education, St. Charles increasingly distanced himself from the Faith, leaning towards agnostic beliefs. He made a decision to forsake all religious observances while preparing for military academy, feeling resentment towards the strict religious regulations enforced at his boarding school in Paris. Despite a rather poor showing at the military academy, St. Charles was still accepted into the French cavalry. After serving in Algeria, he was once again captivated by the life of a socialite, made feasible by a substantial inheritance he received following his grandfather’s passing. Throughout this time, he dedicated himself earnestly to learning about the geography and culture of Algeria and Morocco.

A deepening of his spiritual journey followed, and St. Charles embraced a monastic vocation in 1890, which would lead him through just as many unpredictable routes as it provided chances to surrender to God’s plan. He joined a Trappist monastery in France, later moved to another in Turkey, and then spent time at various ones in Algeria and Rome. In 1896, he requested to be released from the Trappist order entirely, feeling a sense of dissatisfaction. “I love our Lord Jesus Christ and cannot tolerate living a life that is not aligned with His. I do not wish to traverse existence in luxury while the One I cherish chose the most humble path,” he stated. Convinced that the Trappist lifestyle prevented him from “experiencing here the existence of poverty, obscurity, and lowliness … of Our Lord in Nazareth,” he relocated to Nazareth to embark on a phase of informal religious life. There, he served as a maintenance worker for a Poor Clare monastery.

St. Charles was inspired to pursue the priesthood and was ordained in France in 1901 — shortly before he embraced the life of a hermit in Saharan Algeria, where he created a modest hermitage for prayer and hospitality. During this time, he welcomed numerous visitors, including slaves and pilgrims. His aspiration was to form a new religious community there, describing it as: “a little family that mirrors the virtues of Jesus so well that everyone in the nearby vicinity begins to adore Jesus!” However, he received no requests for companionship.

In 1903, he offered his service as a priest to the indigenous communities in the Northern African desert, hoping that “all people reach heaven!” For over ten years, he dedicated himself to the exploration of Tuareg language and culture. His objective: “to bring the Gospel to those who are most neglected … not by preaching it but by embodying it.” Alternatively, as he articulated his mission in another context: “My ministry must be a ministry of kindness. If anyone were to inquire why I am compassionate and kind, I must respond, ‘because I am the servant of someone who is much greater than I am.’” Prior to his passing, St. Charles authored a grammar book, a dictionary, and he translated extensive works of poetry and literature. He considered it “a tremendous comfort” that his translation of the Gospels was the first written book in Tuareg.

During a famine spanning 1907-08, St. Charles went through a sort of physical, spiritual, and psychological “dark night.” In this period, prior to the First World War, St. Charles made several trips back to France. On one of these visits, he drafted the statutes for the Association of the Brothers and Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, which, at the time of his passing, included around 50 similar-minded lay and ordained French Catholics. In spite of his diligent efforts, a decade into his tenure there, St. Charles had not achieved a single conversion. He noted, after ten years of conducting Mass in his hermitage there: “not a single conversion! It requires prayer, effort, and perseverance.” Confronted with rejection, evident failure, and solitude, he remained dedicated to his mission. “I will remain here, the sole European … quite content to be alone with Jesus, alone for Jesus,” he wrote.

On December 1, 1916, St. Charles was taken from his hermitage by local bandits. While their initial intention was merely to abduct him, the assailants ultimately shot him in the head when they encountered French cavalrymen, whom they also killed. Following his demise — regarded at the time as martyrdom, although officially recognized as such by the Church only in 2005 — Charles’ spiritual legacy has motivated nearly 20 religious and secular organizations and groups of the faithful. By God’s grace, St. Charles has left an extraordinary legacy to the Church, in spite of what appeared to be persistent setbacks in the initiatives he pursued. The seed sown when his body was interred in the Saharan sand has yielded tremendous fruit.

7. St. Carolina Santocanale

(1852-1923)

Following a prolonged and serious illness, Sicilian St. Carolina chose to merge her passion for both contemplative and active ministries of religious life by becoming a Secular Franciscan. Taking her vows in 1887 and adopting the Franciscan habit, she took on the name “Maria of Jesus.” In spite of resistance from her family, the saint, renowned for her backpack loaded with essentials, went from door to door in Palermo addressing the needs of the impoverished and ailing. As others began to join her endeavor, St. Carolina established the Capuchin Sisters of the Immaculate of Lourdes in 1909. The congregation received official ecclesiastical recognition just one week prior to Carolina’s passing in 1923.

8. St. Maria Domenica Mantovani

(1862-1934)

St. Maria Domenica was raised in a devout household, where her parents encouraged her to pursue a life of faith. Guided by her parish priest, Blessed Giuseppe Nascimbeni, she devoted herself to catechesis and the care of the sick. In 1886, she took a private vow of chastity, seeking the guidance of the Blessed Mother to clarify her path in living out her vocation more formally. In 1892, alongside Blessed Giuseppe, St. Maria Domenica became a co-founder of the Little Sisters of the Holy Family, taking vows alongside four other members. Even with just three years of formal schooling, St. Maria Domenica’s profound spiritual life became the foundation for her forty years of service as the first superior of the newly established congregation.

9. St. Titus Brandsma

(1881-1942)

St. Titus was raised on a dairy farm in the Netherlands, in an area where Catholicism is not the predominant faith. However, the challenges faced by someone growing up in a religious minority were minor compared to the brutal persecution that would be initiated by the Nazis during Titus’ lifetime. After being ordained as a Carmelite priest in 1905, Titus delved into academia, serving as a philosophy lecturer and becoming an authority on mysticism. He also contributed to journalism. Following a speaking tour at Carmelite institutions in the United States and Canada in 1935, St. Titus returned to his homeland, where he faced scrutiny from the Third Reich for his candid advocacy of journalistic freedom, particularly after their invasion of the Netherlands in 1940. In 1942, St. Titus assumed the position of emissary for the Dutch bishops, conveying their request that Catholic newspapers refrain from any cooperation with the Nazis. Subsequently, he was arrested and imprisoned, and that summer he was taken to the Dachau concentration camp. Titus passed away there on July 26, 1942, due to an experimental injection administered by an SS nurse.

10. St. Justin Russolillo

(1891-1955)

The most recent of the Church’s newly canonized saints, Justin dedicated himself to nurturing vocations within the priesthood and religious communities, all while facing numerous challenges, hardships, and trials. After his ordination in 1913, Justin founded, within just a few years, “Vocationist” communities for both men and women to engage in this vital ministry within the Church, particularly focusing on assisting such vocations among the impoverished and marginalized. St. Justin also created a third order, or secular institute, for laypeople to encourage the universal call to holiness through a connection with the Sacred Heart of Jesus. In this way, he anticipated a similar focus found in the Second Vatican Council. He was born and served as a pastor in the same locality near Genoa, Italy, where he ultimately succumbed to leukemia in 1955. St. Justin’s Vocationist communities are active around the globe, notably in the United States, primarily along the East coast.

Michael R. Heinlein is editor of OSV’s Simply Catholic. He writes from Indiana.