Pope Francis will declare 33 martyrs and 2 others from Brazil, Mexico, Spain and Italy, as the Catholic Church’s new saints on Sunday at a Canonization Mass in Rome’s St. Peter’s Square.
They include 30 so-called “Matryrs of Natal”, including priests and lay people, who were killed in 1645 in a wave of anti-Catholic persecution by Dutch Calvinists in Natal, Brazil.
Another group of 3 indigenous martyrs from Mexico – Cristobal, Antonio and Juan – known as the “Child Martyrs of Tlaxcala” will also be canonized.
Aged between 12 and 13, the children were among the first indigenous Catholics of Mexico who were killed between 1527 and 1529 for refusing to renounce their faith and return to their ancient traditions.
Among the new saints will also be two European priests. One of them is Spanish Piarist Father, Manuel Míguez González, the founder of the Daughters of the Divine Shepherdess, or the Calasanzian Institute.
He died in 1925. The other is Italian Cappuchin priest, Fr. Angelo da Acri, who died in 1739.
