One of the five new saints canonized yesterday by Pope Benedict XVI was St. Nuno de Santa Maria Alvares Pereira.

The new saint should provide pause for reflection for those who believe falsely that Christianity isn’t a religion that has much appeal to the masculine nature. And, equally, for those who believe falsely that military service isn’t compatible with a noble Christian faith.

St. Nuno de Santa Maria Alvares Pereira, who lived in Portugal from 1360-1431, “was a great soldier and a great leader who never allowed his personal qualities to overshadow the supreme action of God,” the Pope noted yesterday in his remarks at the canonization ceremony. “At the end of his life he retreated to a Carmelite convent that he himself had ordered to be built.”

Added Benedict, “This exemplary figure, his life characterized by faith and prayer in apparently unfavorable settings, shows that in any situation — even military life and warfare — it is possible to enact and fulfill the values and principles of Christian life, especially if one places oneself at the service of the common good and the glory of God.”