Pope Francis declared ten figures of the Catholic Church “holy” on Sunday 15 May in front of thousands of faithful from around the world gathered in St. Peter’s Square in Rome. Their portrait hangs on the facade of the world’s largest basilica.

Among the official delegation, the French Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, stood near Italian President Sergio Mattarella. Prime Minister Jean Castex was originally expected to attend the ceremony, but Emmanuel Macron’s trip to the United Arab Emirates to pay his respects to deceased President Khalifa Ben Zayed Al Nahyane ultimately forced him to remain in France.

Unlike in recent days, Pope Francis, 85, who suffers from knee pain, did not appear in a wheelchair before leading this mass, along with about 50 cardinals and 300 priests and bishops.

Canonization, a move that allows a person to become a “saint” in the Catholic Church, after beatification, requires three conditions: have been dead for at least five years, have lived an exemplary Christian life and have performed at least two miracles.

Uruguay’s first saint and India’s first layman

Among these ten “canonized” were three French: the hermit Charles de Foucault, who was assassinated in 1916 in Tamanrasset, in the desert south of Algeria, and the religious French Marie Rivier (1768-1838) and César de Bus (1544-1607) .

The other five new “saints” are Italian: priests Luigi Maria Palazzolo and Giustino Maria Russolillo, Italian nuns Maria Domenica Mantovani and Maria di Gesù Santocanale and Maria Francesca Rubatto of Italy-Uruguay, who became Uruguay’s first saint.

The two others who were canonized were the Dutch priest and journalist Titus Brandsma, known for his commitment to Nazi propaganda during the Second World War, and the martyr Devasahayam (Lazare) Pillai (1712-1752), a Hindu convert to Christianity, India’s first layman. to be “holy”, according to the Vatican.