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On October 20, 2024, Pope Francis will preside over the canonization mass of 14 Blesseds, officially recognizing them as saints. They include 11 martyrs murdered in Syria in the 19th century, as well as two nuns and a priest, all three of whom are founders of religious orders.
11 “Martyrs of Damascus”
Early in the summer of 1860, the predominantly Christian town of Zahlé in the Bekaa Valley, reputed to be impregnable, fell into the hands of Druze militias who set it on fire. Seeing their action go unpunished by the Ottoman Empire, which was supposed to protect religious minorities, the Druze continued their massacre for several days throughout Lebanon.
The pogrom continued in Damascus in July, where between 4,000 and 6,000 Christians were lynched by militias. Among them, members of the Franciscan convent of Bab Tuma were targeted on July 9 and 10.
The community’s superior at the time was Fr. Emmanuel Ruiz, a Spanish Discalced Carmelite. When the revolt broke out, he realized that death was inevitable. Fearing that the tabernacle would be desecrated, he went to the church to consume the Holy Species (the consecrated hosts). He was interrupted by the assailants and beheaded on the altar.
Seven other Franciscan monks were killed in the Damascus massacre: Spaniards Carmelo Bolta Bañuls, Nicanor Ascanio Soria, Nicolás María Alberca Torres, Pedro Nolasco Soler Méndez, Francisco Pinazo Peñalver, Juan Jacob Fernández, and Austrian Engelbert Kolland.
Three Maronites who had taken refuge in the convent were also killed: François, Abdel Mooti, and Raphaël Massabki, a silk merchant and his two brothers who had supported the Franciscans financially. They were thrown from a tower by the Druze. The 11 martyrs of Damascus were beatified in 1926 by Pius XI.
A Canadian nun
Marie-Léonie Paradis was born in 1840 into a particularly pious Acadian family (which included several bishops and a cardinal archbishop of Quebec). At an early age, she joined the Congregation of the Marianite Sisters of the Holy Cross, a teaching and hospital order, and made her religious profession at the age of 17.
She then worked for eight years in a New York orphanage, during which time her congregation suffered a painful split. Marie-Léonie was then sent to Memramcook, where she was encouraged to found her own order in 1880: the Little Sisters of the Holy Family. Her community moved to Sherbrooke, Quebec, where it grew rapidly, before spreading to the United States, Nicaragua, and Italy.
Marie-Léonie died of cancer in 1912. In 1984, after a first miracle, she was beatified by Pope John Paul II during a visit to Canada. The second miracle that led to her canonization was the miraculous cure of a child born prematurely with very serious health problems in 1986 in Quebec. The child has grown up healthy and is now a language teacher.
Founder of the Consolata Missionaries
Fr. Giuseppe Allamano (1851-1926) was a Piedmontese priest known as the founder of the Consolata Missionary Institute in 1901, and its women’s branch in 1910, two missionary orders specializing in first evangelization. Without ever leaving his diocese, he trained and sent hundreds of young priests and nuns to spread the Gospel around the world.
The Italian priest was at the origin of World Missionary Day, instituted by Pius XI in 1926. (His canonization will take place on this day.)
His order, which numbered 907 priests and 519 nuns in 2023, received a boost in 2022 when Giorgio Marengo, Apostolic Prefect of Ulaanbaatar, was created a cardinal.
Fr. Allamano was beatified in 1990 by John Paul II. The miraculous healing that opened the doors to sainthood for this priest from Turin took place in the Amazon in 1996. Sorino Yanomami, an indigenous man, was attacked by a female jaguar, who fractured his skull with a swipe of her paw, exposing and damaging part of his brain. Without medical attention for eight hours, he was finally airlifted to hospital.
At his bedside, six Consolata nuns, a priest, and a Consolata brother prayed alongside the injured man’s wife, asking Blessed Giuseppe Allamano to intercede for him. The man eventually woke up, 10 days after the operation. He was then able to resume his normal life, with no aftereffects whatsoever.
“The Apostle of the Holy Spirit”
Elena Guerra (1835-1914), an Italian, was the founder in 1911 of the Congregation of the Oblates of the Holy Spirit, known as the Sisters of St. Zita. She entered religious life after attending a session of the Vatican I Council in 1870, and founded the Oblates of the Holy Spirit in Lucca in 1882.
Through numerous letters, the religious sister went on to encourage Pope Leo XIII to strengthen Catholic devotion to the Holy Spirit. John XXIII, who beatified her in 1959, called her “the apostle of the Holy Spirit.”
Her order was originally dedicated to the education of young girls, and one of her first pupils was St. Gemma Galgani, a mystic who died at the age of 25 and was canonized in 1940. Elena Guerra’s congregation numbered 216 nuns in 2023.
The second miracle that opened the door to her canonization was the miraculous healing of a Brazilian man who had fallen from the top of a tree he was pruning. Faced with a patient suffering from a very serious brain injury complicated by pneumonia and hepatitis, the doctors interrupted sedation for a day and declared him brain-dead. Members of the Charismatic Renewal then prayed to Blessed Elena Guerra for her intercession. After 21 days, the patient’s health finally improved, and he was able to resume a normal life a few weeks later.
And today we celebrate...