Home / Lifestyle / Pope Leo XIV Canonizes Seven New Saints, Including Ex-Satanic Priest
Pope Leo XIV Canonizes Seven New Saints, Including Ex-Satanic Priest
19 Oct
Summary
- Pope Leo XIV canonizes seven new saints, including a former Satanic priest
- Saints include a lay catechist, an archbishop killed in Armenian genocide, and humanitarian figures
- Ceremony held in St. Peter's Square, with portraits of new saints unfurled
On October 19, 2025, Pope Leo XIV, the first US pope, presided over a ceremony in St. Peter's Square to canonize seven new saints. Among them was Bartolo Longo, a former Satanic priest who later rejoined the Catholic Church and founded the Pontifical Shrine of the Blessed Virgin of the Rosary of Pompeii.
The other new saints included Peter To Rot, a lay catechist from Papua New Guinea killed during the Japanese occupation in World War II, Armenian bishop Ignazio Choukrallah Maloyan who was killed by Turkish forces in 1915, and Venezuelan "doctor of the poor" Jose Gregorio Hernandez Cisneros. Also canonized were three nuns who dedicated their lives to helping the poor and sick, including Maria Carmen Rendiles Martinez from Venezuela and the Italian sisters Vincenza Maria Poloni and Maria Troncatti.
As the new saints were officially declared, huge portraits of them were unfurled from the windows of St. Peter's Square. In his homily, Pope Leo described the new saints as "witnesses" who "kept the lamp of faith burning" and whose "intercession" and "example" can inspire others. The ceremony was attended by an estimated 70,000 people.
