Pope Leo XIV proclaimed seven new saints on Sunday before an estimated 70,000 people in St. Peter’s Square, including the first saints from Venezuela and Papua New Guinea and a former Satanist who underwent a dramatic conversion to become an “Apostle of the Rosary.”

“Today, we have before us seven witnesses, the new saints, who, with God’s grace, kept the lamp of faith burning,” Pope Leo XIV said in his homily on Oct. 19. “Indeed, they themselves became lamps capable of spreading the light of Christ.”

“May their intercession assist us in our trials and their example inspire us in our shared vocation to holiness,” he said.

The canonization Mass unfolded under a bright Roman sun, with Venezuelan flags waving across the square as the Pope declared two of the country’s beloved figures saints: St. José Gregorio Hernández Cisneros, known as the “Doctor of the Poor,” and St. María del Carmen Rendiles Martínez, a religious sister born without her left arm who went on to found the Servants of Jesus in Caracas in 1965.

Among the new saints were also two martyrs. St. Peter To Rot, a lay catechist martyred in Papua New Guinea during the Japanese occupation in World War II, became the country’s first saint. To Rot defied Japanese authorities who permitted polygamy, defending Christian marriage until his death.

St. Ignatius Maloyan, an Armenian Catholic archbishop, was executed during the Armenian genocide after refusing to convert to Islam. “I consider the shedding of my blood for my faith to be the sweetest desire of my heart,” Maloyan said before his death. “If I am tortured for the love of him who died for me, I will be among those who will have joy and bliss, and I will have obtained to see my Lord and my God.”

After the crowd prayed the Litany of the Saints, Pope Leo XIV pronounced the canonization formula in Latin, greeted by enthusiastic cheers.

Among the most well known of the new saints is St. Bartolo Longo, a 19th-century Italian lawyer who abandoned his Catholic faith for Satanism before returning to the Church with zeal. 

After his conversion, Longo dedicated his life to promoting the Rosary and built the Shrine of Our Lady of the Rosary in Pompeii, now one of Italy’s most beloved Marian pilgrimage sites.

In his homily, Pope Leo XI said that “what is most precious in the Lord’s eyes” is “faith, namely, the bond of love between God and man.”

“Our relationship with God is of the utmost importance because at the beginning of time he created all things out of nothing and, at the end of time, he will save mortal beings from nothingness,” the Pope said. “A world without faith, then, would be populated by children living without a Father, that is, by creatures without salvation.”

Three women were also declared saints. In addition to Venezuela’s St. María del Carmen Rendiles Martínez, the Italian foundress St. Vincenza Maria Poloni was also canonized. St. Vincenza Maria founded the Sisters of Mercy of Verona and is remembered for her tireless service to the poor, including at the risk of her life during the cholera epidemic of 1836.

Pope Leo also canonized St. Maria Troncatti, an Italian Salesian sister who spent 44 years as a missionary among the Indigenous Shuar people in Ecuador’s Amazon rainforest. Known affectionately as “Madrecita,” or “Little Mother,” she served as a nurse, surgeon and catechist with missionary zeal.

The canonization coincided with World Mission Sunday. Before praying the Angelus, Pope Leo XIV, who was once an Augustinian missionary himself in Peru, urged the faithful to pray for today’s missionaries.

“The Church is entirely missionary, but today we pray especially for those men and women who left everything to bring the Gospel to those who do not know it. They are missionaries of hope among the people. May the Lord bless them,” he said.

The Pope also made a heartfelt plea for peace, expressing sorrow over renewed violence in Myanmar.

“The news coming from Myanmar is sadly distressing,” he said. “I renew my heartfelt appeal for an immediate and effective ceasefire. May the instruments of war give way to those of peace, through inclusive and constructive dialogue.”

Pope Leo XIV entrusted his prayer for peace to the intercession of the new saints, praying in particular for the Holy Land, Ukraine and other places of conflict.

“May God grant all leaders wisdom and perseverance to advance in the search for a just and lasting peace.”