Five new saints to be canonized on April 26

(April 25, 2009) The Catholic Church will have five new saints on Sunday, April 26, when Pope Benedict will canonize three men and two women during a solemn Mass in St. Peter’s Square in Rome. The candidates for sainthood are:
* Blessed Arcangelo Tadini, an Italian diocesan priest in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and founder of the Worker Sisters of the Holy House of Nazareth, who went into the factories to work alongside other women;
* Blessed Bernardo Tolomei, an Italian priest who founded the Olivetan Benedictine congregation early in the 14th century;
* Blessed Nuno di Santa Maria Alvares Pereira, a lay member of the Portuguese Order of Friars of the Blessed Sacrament. Before his death in 1431 he was known for a life of prayer and penance and his devotion to Mary;
* Blessed Gertrude Comensoli, the 19th-century Italian founder of the Institute of Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament. She devoted her life to the Eucharist and educating girls;
* Blessed Caterina Volpicelli, the 19th-century Italian founder of the Institute of Handmaidens of the Sacred Heart.