Pope canonizing 3 new saints

(October 22, 2011) Pope Benedict XVI will mark the Catholic Church’s annual Mission Sunday on 23rd October, declaring two Italians and a Spaniard the Church’s newest saints. The Pope will canonize the two men and a woman at a solemn Mass in St. Peter’s Square in Rome. The first to be declared saint is Italian Bishop Guido Maria Conforti, the founder of the Society of St. Francis Xavier for Foreign Missions, also known as the Xaverian missionaries. In 1895, seven years after becoming a priest, he founded a congregation of consecrated men dedicated to the evangelization of non-Christians. Named bishop of Ravenna in 1902, he was plagued by ill health and decided to resign. But five years later, he was once again named a bishop, this time as head of the Diocese of Parma. He died in 1931 and in 1996 Blessed John Paul II declared him Blessed. The other Italian to be declared saint is Fr. Luigi Guanella, who founded the Servants of Charity, the Daughters of St. Mary of Providence, and the Confraternity of St. Joseph, whose members pledge to pray for the sick and dying. Fr. Guanella died in 1915 and Pope Paul VI beatified him on Oct. 25, 1964. The third person to be proclaimed saint is Bonifacia Rodriguez Castro from Salamanca, Spain, who founded the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph, and created the "Nazareth workshop" to help poor or unemployed women. She died in 1905.