During the ordinary public consistory gathered at the Vatican this morning of July 1 by Pope Francis, the date of October 20, 2024 was set for fourteen future new saints including the 11 martyrs of Damascus and the nuns Marie-Léonie Paradis and Elena Guerra. Carlo Acutis is expected to be canonized in the Jubilee Year of 2025, along with other blesseds.
Jean-Benoît Harel – Vatican City
In the Consistory Hall, Pope Francis gathered the cardinals present in Rome this Monday 1is July for a public ordinary consistory, concerning several causes of canonization.
Thus, the thirty cardinals present set the date of Sunday October 20, 2024 for the canonization of 14 blesseds, including the martyrs of Damascus and several founders of religious communities. The date of canonization of Carlo Acutis, the young Italian layman nicknamed the “geek of God” who died in 2006 at the age of 15 from devastating leukemia has not yet been set. He will probably be proclaimed a saint during the Jubilee, along with other canonizations.
The Martyrs of Damascus
Beatified by Pius XI in 1926, the eleven martyrs of Damascus will be canonized almost a hundred years later, on October 20, 2024. These eight minor brothers, Manuel Ruiz López and seven of his companions, as well as three Christians of the Maronite rite, brothers Francis, Mooti and Raphäel Massabki.
On the night of July 9-10, 1860, in Damascus, Syria, they were assassinated by a commando of Druze Muslims in the Franciscan monastery in the Christian quarter of Bab-Touma. Their martyrdom took place in a context of persecutions organized by Druze Muslims, from Lebanon to Syria, during which thousands of Christians are said to have lost their lives.
Three founders of religious communities
Three founders of religious communities will be canonized on October 20. First, Father Joseph Allamano, Italian priest and founder of the Missionaries of the Consolata in 1901 and the Missionary Sisters of the Consolata in 1910. Beatified by Saint John Paul II in 1990, his two communities number around 2,000 people who devote to evangelization and service to the poor in mission territories.
Also among the future saints was Elena Guerra, founder of the Oblates of the Holy Spirit in 1872, a congregation dedicated to education, pastoral work and the promotion of devotion to the Holy Spirit. She wrote numerous works to promote the role of the Holy Spirit in the life of the Church, and even created a novena for the faithful entitled “New Cenacle” Inspired by her works, Pope Leo XIII explicitly encouraged devotion to the Holy Spirit in his 1897 encyclical Divinum Illud Munus. She was beatified by St. John XXIII on April 26, 1959.
The Consistory of July 1, 2024.
Finally, Blessed Marie-Léonie Paradis, a Canadian nun, will also be canonized. Sent to the United States for 12 years, she returned to Canada and founded the Little Sisters of the Holy Family in 1880. This congregation works in particular with students in schools, colleges and seminaries. She was beatified on September 11, 1984, by Pope John Paul II, at Parc Jarry in Montreal, during his trip to Canada.
Three cardinals elevated to the order of cardinal-priests
During this consistory, three cardinals also joined the order of cardinal-priests. They are Cardinal James Michael Harvey, archpriest of the Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls since November 2012, Cardinal Lorenzo Baldisseri, former nuncio to India and Brazil and finally Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Müller, who was prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith from 2017 to 2017.
There are three orders within the college of cardinals: cardinal-deacons, cardinal-priests and cardinal-bishops.
