I just realized I never did post the full report on the latest roster of candidate saints announced by the Vatican last Saturday, other than the brief announcement I posted in the day's almanac... CNA provides a summary.
New candidate saints include
martyrs of the French Revolution
and the Spanish civil war, and
a German teenager in World War II
by Alan Holdren
Vatican City, Apr 4, 2011 (CNA/EWTN News).- Twenty-two martyrs of the Spanish Civil War and a priest beheaded during the French Revolution will be declared “blessed” by the Church in coming months.
On April 2, the Pope met with Cardinal Angelo Amato, the prefect of the Vatican's Congregation for the Causes of Saints, to review canonization causes up for advancement.
The Vatican announced that Pope Benedict XVI had approved 29 beatification decrees and recognized the "heroic virtue" of six candidates for sainthood.
The Church has recognized the martyrdom of Father Francisco Esteban Lacal of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate and 21 of his companions – among them Oblate students, religious and priests – who were killed in 1936 along with a layman, Candido Castan San Jose, after a series of persecutions against them for their work in religious communities and parishes.
It is estimated that nearly 7,000 clergy and religious, including 12 bishops, were killed for their faith during the 1936-1939 Spanish Civil War.
The Vatican also determined that Father Peter Adrian Toulorge of the Premonstratensian Regular Canons died as a martyr during the French Revolution. He was guillotined in Coutances, France, in 1793 for being a Catholic priest.
His cause was opened in 1922, along with those of 56 other priests from France's Normandy region.
In addition to the newly declared martyrs, the Vatican certified miracles attributed to the intercession of two priests and three religious sisters from Italy and Spain, thus paving the way for their beatifications.
Among them is Father Clemente Vismara, an Italian priest of the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions who died in 1988 at 91 years old. The miracle involved a 10-year old boy in Myanmar, where Fr. Vismara worked.
The boy hit his head on a rock after he fell from a tree branch 15-feet above the ground. He went into a coma, but after three days of prayer for Fr. Vismara's intercession, the boy woke up and suffered no permanent damage.
Although no canonization causes were approved for full sainthood in this batch, six Catholic faithful were recognized for having shown "heroic virtue" in their lives. Bishop Thomas Kurialacherry*, the first bishop of Changanacherry, India; Canadian religious Br. Theophanius-Leo Chatillon of the Brothers of Christian Schools and 14-year old Bernhard Lehner, a courageously faithful German teenager who died from an illness in 1944 were among them.
*
*How fitting that a sainthood cause should begin for the first bishop of Changanacherry shortly after the death of Cardinal Vayanathil, who was the Syro-Malabar Primate. This eastern rite Church counts with a number of Blesseds already, as well as the first Indian female saint, St. Alphonsa.
The following is the list of the candidate saints whose cause has advanced one step:
MIRACLES
- Venerable Servant of God Serafino Morazzone, Italian diocesan priest (1747-1822).
- Venerable Servant of God Clemente Vismara, Italian professed priest of the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions (1897-1988).
- Venerable Servant of God Elena Aiello, Italian foundress of the Minim Sisters of the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ (1895-1961).
- Venerable Servant of God Maria Catalina Irigoyen Echegaray (Sr. Maria Desposorios), Spanish professed nun of the Congregation of Servants of Mary, Ministers of the Sick (1848-1918).
- Venerable Servant of God Enrica Alfieri (nee Maria Angela), Italian professed nun of the Congregation of the Sisters of Charity of St. Jeanne-Antide Thouret (1891-1951).
MARTYRDOM
- Servant of God Peter Adrian Toulorge, French professed priest of the Premonstratensian Regular Canons, killed in hatred of the faith at Coutances, France (1757-1793).
- Servants of God Francisco Esteban Lacal, Spanish professed priest of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate, and 21 companions,including Candido Castan San Jose, Spanish layman, killed in hatred of the faith in Spain in 1936.
HEROIC VIRTUES
- Servant of God Thomas Kurialacherry, Indian, first bishop of Changanacherry and founder of the Sisters of the Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament (1873-1925).
- Servant of God Adolphe Chatillon (Br. Theophanius-Leo), Canadian professed religious of the Brothers of Christian Schools (1871-1929).
- Servant of God Maria Chiara of St. Teresa of the Child Jesus (nee Vincenza Damato), Italian professed nun of the Order of St. Clare (1909-1948).
- Servant of God Maria Dolores Inglese (nee Maria Libera Italia), Italian professed nun of the Congregation of Sisters Servants of Mary Reparatrix (1866-1928).
- Servant of God Irene Stefani (nee Aurelia), Italian professed nun of the Institute of Missionary Sisters of the Consolata (1891-1930).
- Servant of God Bernhard Lehner, German layman (1930-1944).
Salvatore Izzo of AGI gives us soem information about this German teenager:
The saintly teenager
from Regensburg
by Salvatore Izzo
Translated from
"In prayer, he was the most assiduous; in study, the most engaged; and at play, the most joyful. During my 37 years in this seminary, he was my best student. And now, we all have an intercessor in heaven."
These were the words of the rector of the seminary in Regensburg at the funeral in 1944 of Bernhard Lehner, who died of diphtheria at 14, and whose 'heroic virtues' the Church has now formally recognized.
A carpenter's son, Bernhard entered the seminary by dispensation when he was only 11. Struck by his fatal illness, he offered all his sufferings so that peace would come to a world lacerated by the Second World War.
Every year, he has been remembered at a 'Bernhardfest' in Regensburg as a tribute to the continuing renown of his holiness.