Pope Leo XIV Canonizes Seven New Saints Including Former Satanic Priest at Vatican Ceremony

Massive portraits were displayed as Pope Leo made his appearance from St Peter's Basilica. (File)

On Sunday, Pope Leo XIV canonized seven new saints, including a former Satanic priest who rediscovered his Christian faith.

Bells echoed throughout St Peter's Square during the ceremony, where he sanctified the ex-occultist priest, Bartolo Longo, alongside six others: a lay catechist from Papua New Guinea, an archbishop killed in the Armenian genocide, a Venezuelan physician known as the "doctor of the poor," and three nuns who devoted their lives to serving the impoverished and sick.

Bartolo Longo, an Italian lawyer born in 1841 who died in 1926, abandoned Satanism to return to Catholicism and subsequently established the Pontifical Shrine of the Blessed Virgin of the Rosary of Pompeii.

"Today we have before us seven witnesses, the new Saints, who, with God's grace, kept the lamp of faith burning," Pope Leo addressed an audience estimated by the Vatican to number approximately 70,000 people.

"May their intercession assist us in our trials and their example inspire us in our shared vocation to holiness," he stated during his homily.

Enormous portraits of the seven saints were unfurled from windows overlooking the square as Leo, the first American pope, emerged from St Peter's Basilica attired in ceremonial white vestments with a mitre atop his head, preceded by white-robed bishops and cardinals.

Cardinal Marcello Semeraro, prefect of the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints—the Vatican department responsible for beatification and canonization—read biographical sketches of the seven to applause from the assembled crowd.

With Pope Leo's recitation of the canonization formula, they were officially proclaimed saints.

In his homily, Leo characterized the new saints as either "martyrs for their faith," "evangelisers and missionaries," "charismatic founders" of religious congregations, or "benefactors of humanity."

This canonization ritual was the second conducted by the former Robert Prevost since becoming leader of the Catholic Church on May 8.

Last month, he declared as saints Italians Carlo Acutis—a teenager nicknamed "God's Influencer" who propagated the faith online before his death at 15 in 2006—and Pier Giorgio Frassati, regarded as an exemplar of charity who died in 1925 at age 24.

Canonization represents the final stage toward sainthood in the Catholic Church, following beatification.

Three requirements must be fulfilled—most importantly that the individual has performed at least two miracles. The person must have been deceased for a minimum of five years and have led an exemplary Christian life.

Among those canonized Sunday were Peter To Rot, a lay catechist from Papua New Guinea killed during the Japanese occupation in World War II; Armenian bishop Ignazio Choukrallah Maloyan, executed by Turkish forces in 1915; and Venezuela's Jose Gregorio Hernandez Cisneros, a layman who died in 1919, whom the late Pope Francis described as a "doctor close to the weakest."

Also from Venezuela was Maria Carmen Rendiles Martinez, a nun born without a left arm who overcame her disability to establish the Congregation of the Servants of Jesus before her death in 1977. She becomes Venezuela's first female saint.

The Italian nuns canonized are Vincenza Maria Poloni, the 19th-century founder of Verona's Institute of the Sisters of Mercy, which primarily cares for hospital patients, and Maria Troncatti of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians.

In the 1920s, Troncatti arrived in Ecuador to dedicate her life to assisting its indigenous population.

After the service, Pope Leo circled St Peter's Square in his popemobile, extending his journey beyond its boundaries down the Via della Conciliazione connecting the Vatican to Rome, stopping frequently to bless infants among thousands of well-wishers.