Pope to canonize pro-life mother, four priests and a nun

Vatican City, Feb 18, 2004 / 22:00 pm

The Holy See announced today that Pope John Paul II will canonize on May 16 six blessed including Gianna Beretta, the Italian woman who rejected a cancer treatment in order to save her unborn child forty years ago. An Ordinary Public Consistory presided over by the Holy Father took place this morning in the Clementine Hall in the Apostolic Palace, during which the date of the canonization was set.

The list of blessed includes also four priests from Italy, France, Spain and Lebanon; and a religious woman who founded a community after she lost her husband. They are the following:

• Blessed Luigi Orione, priest and founder of the Little Work of Divine Providence and of the Congregation of the Little Sisters, Missionaries of Charity.

• Blessed Annibale Maria di Francia, priest and founder of the Congregation of the Rogationist Fathers of the Heart of Jesus and of the Religious Daughters of Divine Generosity.

• Blessed Jose Manyanet y Vives, priest and founder of the Congregation of the Sons of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph and the Missionary Daughters of the Holy Family of Nazareth.

• Blessed Nimatullah Al Hardini, priest of the Lebanese Maronite Order.

• Blessed Paola Elisabetta, nee Costanza Cerioli, widow Busecchi-Tassis, foundress of the Institute of Religious of the Holy Family.