Pope Francis presides at the Canonization Mass for 14 new Saints, including 11 martyrs killed in Syria for refusing to renounce their faith, and upholds their Christian witness by noting they lived Jesus’ way of service.
Father Manuel Ruiz López and his seven companions, the brothers Francis, Mooti, and Raphael Massabki, Father Joseph Allamano, Sister Marie Leonie Paradis, and Sister Elena Guerra, canonized by Pope Francis on Sunday, each exemplified heroic virtue and bore witness to holiness within their unique vocations.
As the Pope noted in his homily at the Canonization Mass in St. Peter’s Square on World Mission Sunday, “These new saints lived Jesus’ way: service.”
“The faith and the apostolate they carried out did not feed their worldly desires and hunger for power but, on the contrary, they made themselves servants of their brothers and sisters, creative in doing the good, steadfast in difficulties and generous to the end,” he said.
The Pope noted that their witness invites Christians to heed Jesus’ invitation to serve, not to seek glory.
