Vatican City: In his first such ceremony in nearly a year, Pope Benedict canonised four new saints in Rome's St Peter's Square yesterday.
They included French-born nun Mother Theodore Guerin who served on the American frontier in the 19th century; Fr Filippo Smaldone, an Italian priest who helped the deaf; Sr Rosa Venerini, an Italian nun who pushed for public school education for girls; and Bishop Rafael Guizar Valencia, who helped the wounded during the Mexican Revolution.
Bishop Valencia is the great-uncle of Fr Marcial Maciel Degollado, founder of the Legionaries of Christ congregation, who Pope Benedict removed from public ministry earlier this year following allegations he had sexually abused seminarians.
Among those celebrating the Mass on the steps of St Peter's Basilica yesterday were ailing Archbishop of Chicago Cardinal Francis George; and five churchmen from Indiana, where Mother Theodore Guerin set up a college for women which enrolled its first student in 1841.
Bishop Valencia died in 1938. He sometimes disguised himself as a street vendor or musician to help the wounded during the Mexican Revolution. Believers in Mexico say his body showed little sign of decay when removed from a cemetery and put on display in the local cathedral in 1950.
Fr Smaldone, who died in 1923, pioneered education for the deaf and founded the Congregation of the Salesian Sisters of the Sacred Hearts, which has convents in Brazil, Moldova, Paraguay and Rwanda.
Sr Venerini, who died in 1728, pioneered education for girls in Italy. She founded the Congregation of the Holy Venerini Teachers, nuns who worked to establish public schools for girls.
