Four new Saints for the Church

Pope Francis set to canonize four saints on Sunday

2015-10-17

Saint Peter's Square is ready, with images of four blesseds who will become saints during a ceremony on Sunday.

Pope Francis will preside, proclaiming as saints a married couple, an Italian priest, and a Spanish nun.

The Italian priest is Vincenzo Grossi, founder of the Institute of the Daughters of the Oratory. He was born in 1845 in Cremona and died in 1917. The order he founded in 1895 is dedicated to evangelizing to young people and children. They have homes in Italy, Argentina, and Ecuador. Grossi was beatified 40 years ago.

Mother María de la Purísima de la Cruz was Superior General of the Sisters of the Company of the Cross. The order is dedicated to helping the most poor. She was born in Madrid in 1926 and died in 1998. Pope Benedict XVI approved her beatification in 2010. 

The married couple are the parents of St. Therese of Lisieux, Louis Martin and Celia Guerin. In 2009, they were declared blesseds. They will be the first married couple canonized together in the same ceremony. And they'll become saints during the Synod on the Family, to highlight the importance of having parents pass the faith to their children.