Pope approves canonisation of first saint from Papua New Guinea

Pope Francis was presented with an image of Bl Peter To Rot in Port Moresby on 9 September, 2024 - Image: Vatican Media

Source: Vatican Media

Pope Francis on Monday approved decrees related to the canonisation of martyred layman Peter To Rot from Papua New Guinea, Archbishop Ignatius Choukrallah Maloyan, who was murdered during the Armenian genocide, and Venezuelan religious founder Mother Maria del Monte Carmelo.

Born on March 5, 1912, Blessed Peter was educated in the Christian faith and became a catechist, and his life was characterised by charity, humility, and dedication to the poor and orphans.

During the Japanese occupation of Papua New G during the Second World War, Blessed Peter continued to prepare couples for marriage as missionaries were imprisoned. When his pastoral activity was forbidden, he carried out his apostolate in secret, fully aware that he was risking his life.

He staunchly defended the sanctity of marriage and opposed the practice of polygamy, confronting even his older brother, who had taken a second wife. Blessed Peter's brother reported him to the police, and he was sentenced to two months in prison, where he died of poisoning in July 1945.

Pope St John Paul II beatified Blessed Peter To Rot on January 17, 1995, in Port Moresby.

Pope Francis also cleared the way for the canonization of Blessed Ignatius Choukrallah Maloyan, who was born in 1869 in Mardin, in present-day Türkiye.

Ordained a priest in 1883 in Lebanon, he took the Christian name Ignatius and became known as an excellent preacher in both Arabic and Turkish, devoting himself to parish ministry and the study of sacred texts in Alexandria, Egypt.

In 1911, Pope Pius X appointed him Archbishop of Mardin during the Synod of Armenian Bishops in Rome, which examined the situation in Turkey after the rise of the Young Turks movement.

After Turkish forces entered the First World War, Archbishop Maloyan was arrested along with 13 priests and 600 other Christians in the tumult that included forced enlistments and harassment against Christians, particularly Armenian Christians.

Archbishop Maloyan and his companions were executed on June 3, 1915, when they refused to renounce the faith. He was beatified by Pope St. John Paul II on October 7, 2001.

Venezuela will also have its first native-born saint, as the Pope recognized a miracle attributed to Blessed Maria del Monte Carmelo, born Carmen Elena Rendíles Martínez in Caracas on August 11, 1903.

She joined the Congregation of the Servants of Jesus of the Blessed Sacrament in 1927 and then left with several other Latin American sisters to found the Congregation of the Servants of Jesus in 1946.

She spent the final years of her life in a wheelchair following a car accident in 1974 and died on May 9, 1977.

The miracle attributed to her intercession involved the 2015 healing of a young woman in Caracas with a heart condition.

Pope Francis also recognized a miracle attributed to Fr Carmelo De Palma, an Italian priest from Bari, who was born on January 27, 1876.

Inspired by the Benedictine charism, Venerable De Palma dedicated himself to offering spiritual direction for priests, nuns, and seminarians, becoming known as a "hero of the confessional."

The miracle involved the healing of a Benedictine nun in 2013 afflicted by a debilitating degenerative illness.

The Pope also recognised the heroic virtues of Servant of God José Antônio de Maria Ibiapina, a 19th-century Brazilian politician-turned-priest.