Vatican City, Oct 19, 2025 / 08:15 am

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

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