Four new saints for the Catholic Church

(June 04, 2007) Pope Benedict declared four new saints for the Catholic Church on Sunday, people who worked in Ireland, France, Poland and Malta. The new saints, whose lives spanned from the 15th to the 20th century, would be spiritual guides for the faithful, the Pope told thousands of pilgrims from the 4 countries and elsewhere who braved pouring rain in St. Peter's Square. "May these new saints accompany you with their prayers and inspire you by the example of their holy lives," he said during the Mass on the liturgical feast of the Holy Trinity.
Heads of state from Ireland, Malta, Poland and the Philippines attended the canonisation Mass - the final step on the long path to sainthood during which the Church examines the holiness of a person's life and verifies claims of miracles attributed to their intercession with God.
Among the new saints was Sister Marie Eugenie de Jesus Milleret, a French nun who in 1839 founded the Religious of the Assumption to educate young girls. Today, the order has 1,200 nuns in 170 communities around the world. President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo attended the Mass because a young Philippine child who was diagnosed with severe brain damage affecting her sight was cured after praying to Sister Marie Eugenie. The Vatican accepted the miracle to clear the way for the nun’s sainthood. The child, who is now 12 and attends an Assumption school in the Philippines, was present at Sunday's Mass and was part of the offertory procession bringing gifts up to the pope.
The other three new saints are: Simon of Lipnica, a monk who lived in 15th century Poland; Charles of St. Andrew, a Dutch preacher who worked in Ireland where he was known as Charles of Mount Argus and Maltese preacher George Preca who died in 1962.