There are 14 new saints who will be canonized on Sunday 20 October by Pope Francis. They are Manuel Ruiz López and seven companions, of the Order of Friars Minor, and Francis, Mooti and Raffaele Massabki, lay faithful, martyrs; Giuseppe Allamano, priest, founder of the Institutes of the Missionaries of the Consolata and of the Missionary Sisters of the Consolata (to whom Famiglia Cristiana dedicates an extensive article on newsstands), Marie-Léonie Paradis (born: Virginie Alodie), founder of the Congregation of the Little Sisters of Holy Family and Elena Guerra, founder of the Congregation of the Oblates of the Holy Spirit, known as the “Sisters of Santa Zita”.
The martyrdom of the eight friars and three Maronite faithful (also known as the martyrs of Damascus) occurred on the night between 9 and 10 July 1860 as part of the persecution against Christians by the Shiite Druze in Lebanon and Syria . They were all killed by a commando who entered the Franciscan convent in the Christian neighborhood of Bab-Touma.
Giuseppe Allamano, on the other hand, among his many worthy works, played a great role in raising awareness among the clergy and faithful about the lack of knowledge of missionary activities. Already in 1912 he had asked Pius X to establish a World Missions Day. A day that was then decided in 1926, after his death.
Marie-Léonie Paradis carried out her mission at the service of priests by establishing the Little Sisters of the Holy Family with the charism of spiritual and material support to priests. From constant prayer for their ministry to practical tasks, from cooking to cleaning in colleges and seminaries.
Finally, Elena Guerra is known for having fought, at the end of the nineteenth century, for the rediscovery (many of her publications on the subject) of the Holy Spirit as opposed to the growing spread of spiritualist practices and anticlericalism.