Italian Mother Among New Saints Canonized by Pope

VATICAN CITY — Pope John Paul II elevated four men and two women to sainthood, including a mother who gave up her life to save the life of her unborn child.

The pope said "this holy mother," St. Gianna Beretta Molla, followed Christ's example of loving one's "own in the world and loving them to the end."

St. Molla and five religious were canonized May 16 in St. Peter's Square as 40,000 pilgrims from all over the world watched and waved flags and banners.

In his homily, the pope said the six new saints trusted completely in Jesus' promise of peace.

"True peace is the fruit of Christ's victory over the power of evil, sin and death. Who follows him faithfully will become witnesses and builders of his peace," he said.

Pietro Molla, more than 90 years old and the modern church's first living husband of a saint, looked on with his two daughters, one son, and other relatives as the pope recited the formula of canonization.

Born in 1922 near Milan in Magenta, Italy, St. Molla is often called the "pro-life saint." She died of a uterine tumor in 1962, just one week after giving birth to her fourth child, who was present at the ceremony.

A doctor and surgeon, St. Molla had refused to undergo any treatment that may have saved her life but would have put the fetus she was carrying at risk.

The pope said, "The extreme sacrifice that sealed her life pays witness to how only the person who has the courage to give oneself totally to God and others fulfills oneself."

Many of the newly canonized were Italian, but the canonization of St. Nimatullah Kassab al-Hardini, a 19th-century Lebanese Maronite monk, gave the May 16 ceremony a touch of the Middle East.

After the Gospel reading in Italian, the colonnade surrounding St. Peter's Square reverberated with the haunting tones of a Maronite chant.

The same passage from the book of John was then intoned in Arabic. Even the Holy Father took part by chanting, "peace be with you," in Arabic.

St. Hardini was born in 1808 in Hardine, Lebanon, and died in 1858. He was a priest at the monastery in Kfifan who demonstrated a special devotion to the Eucharist and the Blessed Virgin Mary.

He prayed daily for Mary to help protect Lebanon -- which underwent two civil wars in his lifetime -- and his order, which came under brutal assault just two years after his death.

The pope called St. Hardini "an example for all monks of the Lebanese Maronite order, as well as for all Lebanese friars and all Christians of the world."

St. Hardini gave himself completely to God "in a life of great sacrifice, showing that the love of God is the only true source of joy and happiness for mankind," said the pope.

"May his example show us the way and may it especially spark in young people a true desire for God and holiness in order to proclaim the light of the Gospel to the world," he said.

St. Hardini is Lebanon's third saint and the second Lebanese to be canonized by Pope John Paul.

Also canonized May 16 were:

-- St. Luigi Orione, Italian priest and founder of the Sons of Divine Providence and the Little Missionary Sisters of Charity. He was born in 1872 and died in 1940.

Pope John Paul called him "totally dedicated to Christ and his kingdom."

He said it was his passion for Christ that helped St. Orione overcome many difficulties and face great physical hardship.

This passion "was the driving force behind his uninhibited altruism and the ever-flowing wellspring of an indestructible hope," he said.

-- St. Josep Manyanet Vives, Spanish priest and founder of the Sons of the Holy Family and the Missionary Daughters of the Holy Family of Nazareth. He lived from 1833 to 1859.

The pope called him "a true apostle of the family," who "fulfilled both his project of personal sanctity and, heroically, the mission the Holy Spirit entrusted to him."

-- St. Annibale Di Francia, an Italian priest born in Messina, Italy, in 1851. He founded the Daughters of Divine Zeal and the Rogationist Fathers. He died in 1927.

The pope praised his dedication to promoting prayers for vocations so that other holy men and women would expand his work. Pope John Paul invited today's young people to heed St. Di Francia's call to "fall in love with Jesus Christ."

-- St. Paola Elisabetta Cerioli, founder of the men's Congregation of the Holy Father and the Sisters of the Holy Family. She was born near Cremona, Italy, in 1816 and lived until 1865. She became a religious after her husband and four children died.

The pope said the new saint believed families remained solid when their relationship was founded upon and fostered by common "values of faith and Christian culture."

The pope said St. Cerioli believed that for children to grow up strong and secure "they needed a family that was healthy and united, strong and stable."

Pope John Paul has canonized 483 men and women.

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