Pope Francis has advanced five people’s paths to sainthood after approving decrees promulgated by the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Causes of Saints on March 28.
Blessed Peter To Rot of Papua New Guinea, Blessed Ignatius Shoukrallah Maloyan of Turkey, and Blessed María Carmen of Venezuela will be proclaimed saints of the Church.
The pope also approved the beatification of Italian diocesan priest Carmelo De Palma and declared Brazilian priest José Antônio de Maria Ibiapina a “venerable” of the Church.
The canonization ceremonies of both To Rot and Maloyan are to be discussed in a future customary consistory, according to a Holy See Press Office announcement.
To Rot, a lay catechist born on March 5, 1912, and martyred for his faith during World War II, will be the first canonized saint from Papua New Guinea.
Beatified by St. John Paul II during his apostolic journey to the Oceania nation on Jan. 17, 1995, To Rot is recognized by the Church as a defender of Christian marriage and a faithful catechist who continued his ministry until his death in prison.
Two children, one of them holding a statue of Blessed Peter To Rot, await the visit of Pope Francis at the Caritas Technical Secondary School in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, Sept. 7, 2024 - Credit: Daniel Ibáñez/CNA
Fame of To Rot’s sanctity spread throughout Papua New Guinea and to other countries in the Pacific Ocean — including the Solomon Islands and Australia — following his 1995 beatification.
Maloyan was born on April 19, 1869, and died a martyr in Turkey in 1915 after refusing to convert to Islam. He was beatified by St. John Paul II on Oct. 7, 2001, alongside six other servants of God.
Ordained in Lebanon in 1883, Maloyan was known as an intelligent and exemplary priest with a deep understanding of Scripture. He was later elected archbishop of Mardine during the Synod of Armenian Bishops held in Rome in 1911.
Following the great persecution of Armenians in the country with the outbreak of World War I, Maloyan alongside other priests and Christian faithful were executed by Turkish officers in June 1915 after refusing to convert to Islam.
Blessed María Carmen (née Carmen Elena Rendíles Martínez) will become the first canonized saint of Venezuela after the Holy Father approved the miracle — the healing of a woman diagnosed with idiopathic triventricular hydrocephalus — attributed to her intercession.
Born in the country’s capital, Caracas, on Aug. 11, 1903, she became a religious sister of the Congregation of the Servants of Jesus of the Blessed Sacrament in 1927 and later became one of the founders of the Congregation of the Servants of Jesus in Venezuela in 1946.
Serving the Catholic faithful in schools and parishes alongside her sisters who founded the new Latin American congregation, Blessed María Carmen was known for her love for Jesus in the Eucharist.
