In an Oct. 20 audience with pilgrims who traveled to Rome for the previous day’s canonization of seven saints, Pope Leo XIV encouraged them to strive to imitate the saints’ virtues, including hope, service to the vulnerable, and bold defense of truths of the faith, such as the sanctity of marriage.
“The men and women we proclaimed saints yesterday are for all of us shining signs of hope, because they offered their lives in love for Christ and their brothers and sisters, the Pontiff said in Italian in his Oct. 20 address to the pilgrims in audience.
Saints Ignatius Maloyan and Peter To Rot
Speaking in English, Pope Leo spoke about the examples of saints Ignatius Maloyan, an Armenian bishop and martyr, and Peter To Rot, a catechist and the first saint from Papua New Guinea.
St. Maloyan, who lived from 1869 to 1915, “was a pastor after Christ’s own heart, and in times of heavy difficulties, he did not abandon his flock, rather he encouraged them in order to strengthen their faith,” Pope Leo said. According to the Vatican website, in June 1915 Turkish soldiers arrested St. Mayolan and other Catholic Armenians. St. Mayolan was brought to trial in court, during which the chief of police asked him to convert to Islam. He refused. For the next several days, St. Mayolan endured horrific tortures at the hands of the soldiers, but he continued to encourage his parishioners to remain steadfast in their faith.
When he faced pressure to renounce his faith to obtain freedom, St. Maloyan did not hesitate to choose Christ, even to the point of death, Pope Leo said.
“This makes me think fondly of the Armenian people, who carve the cross into stones as a sign of their firm and rock-solid faith,” Pope Leo said.
Pope Leo said everyone shares “in the joy of the beloved Armenian people as we look to the holiness of the martyred Bishop Ignatius Maloyan” and prayed that his intercession will “renew “the fervor of believers and bring fruits of reconciliation and peace for all.”
In a separate Oct. 20 meeting, Pope Leo received the Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia, Nikol Pashinyan, in audience.
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Speaking to the pilgrims about Saint Peter To Rot, Pope Leo said the new saint exhibited steadfastness and fortitude in preaching the truths of the Gospel even amid life-threatening challenges. As a catechist during World War II, the new saint from Papua New Guinea “showed extraordinary courage by risking his life to carry out his apostolate in secret,” because occupying forces prohibited his pastoral work, Pope Leo said.
“At the same time, when these authorities permitted the practice of polygamy, Saint Peter To Rot firmly defended the sanctity of marriage and even confronted some powerful people,” Pope Leo said. “Let us listen to his words in the face of hostility, ‘This is a very bad time for us and we are all afraid. But God our Father is with us and looking after us. We must pray and ask him to stay with us always.’”
CatholicVote previously reported that St. To Rot opposed polygamy and helped couples prepare for marriage; he also condemned polygamy and confronted his brother for taking a second wife. His brother turned him in to the police, who imprisoned him. He died from poisoning in prison in 1945.
“Dear brothers and sisters,” Pope Leo said, “may the example of Saint Peter To Rot encourage us to defend the truths of the faith, even at the cost of personal sacrifice, and to rely always on God in our trials.”
Saints José Gregorio Hernández and Carmen Rendiles
Speaking in Spanish, Pope Leo praised the heroic lives of saints José Gregorio Hernández, a physician and Third Order Franciscan, and Carmen Rendiles, a religious sister who founded the Servants of Jesus of Caracas. Pope Leo said the bishops of Venezuela published a letter Oct. 7 marking the joyful canonization of “two sons of their beloved land.”
The bishops “asked the Lord that this be a strong incentive for all Venezuelans to come together and recognize themselves as children and brothers and sisters of the same homeland, reflecting on the present and the future in the light of the virtues that these saints lived in a heroic manner,” Pope Leo said.
He praised these saints’ virtues of faith, hope and charity, saying faith illuminated their lives and hope was present in their struggles.
Charity, he said, enables everyone “to find the true meaning of life and asks us to build it through service, whether to the sick, the poor, or the little ones.”
Reflecting on these virtues also enables one to see that everyone around oneself is called to holiness, so one “must therefore see them, above all, as brothers and sisters to be respected and loved, sharing the journey of life, supporting each other in difficulties and building the kingdom of God together with joy,” Pope Leo said.
Saints Maria Troncatti, Vincenza Maria Poloni, and Bartolo Longo
Pope Leo then spoke in Italian about Salesian Saint Sister Maria Troncatti, who cared for the indigenous peoples of Ecuador. Drawing on faith and prayer as a missionary, he said, St. Troncatti blended medical expertise and love for Christ to care for others.
“Her truly tireless work is an example for us of a charity that does not give up in the face of difficulties, but rather transforms them into opportunities for free and total self-giving,” he said.
Pope Leo also canonized Sister Vincenza Maria Poloni, founder of the Sisters of Mercy, and Bartolo Longo, a former Satanic priest who converted to Catholicism and became a third order Dominican.
In the Oct. 20 address the Pontiff praised St. Poloni’s particular gift for caring for the vulnerable, which he said “bears witness to Jesus’ compassion towards the sick and the marginalized.”
“Nurturing social commitment with a profound Eucharistic spirituality and with Marian devotion,” Pope Leo said, “Saint Vincenza encourages us to persist in daily service to the most fragile: it is precisely there that holiness of life flourishes!”
St. Bartolo Longo exemplifies this transformation through grace in a particularly intense way, Pope Leo continued.
“Converting from a life far from God, he devoted all his energy to works of corporal and spiritual mercy, promoting faith in Christ and affection for Mary through charity towards orphans, the poor, the desperate,” Pope Leo said.
He noted St. Longo’s devotion to the Rosary, calling him “apostle of the Rosary,” and added, “I wholeheartedly recommend this prayer to everyone, to priests, religious, families and young people.”
“Contemplating the mysteries of Christ with Mary’s gaze, day by day we assimilate the Gospel and learn to practise it,” he concluded. “Dear pilgrims, I hope you return to your homes with hearts full of gratitude and with an ardent desire to imitate the new saints. May their intercession accompany you and their example inspire you.”