Who is Charles de Foucauld, hermit of the desert, canonized this Sunday by Pope Francis?

The latter proclaimed ten figures of the Catholic Church "saints" on Sunday, including the Frenchman Charles de Foucauld, in front of some 45,000 faithful from around the world gathered in Saint Peter's Square in Rome.

Arrived by car, Pope Francis, 85, who suffers from knee pain, did not appear in a wheelchair to preside over this canonization mass - the first since the pandemic - alongside around fifty cardinals and 2,000 priests and bishops.

Pilgrims delighted to see the Pope in person rather than on screen

Early Sunday, in summer weather, groups of pilgrims - many from France, the Netherlands, Africa and Latin America - had begun to flock to the largest basilica in the world, on which were hung portraits of the new "saints".

Some pilgrims themselves wore clothing in their likeness.

“Our son is called Foucauld, it is a great joy to come with the family for the canonization of his patron saint.

It will only happen once in a lifetime, so we all came,” said Marie, her mother, 30, from Bourg-en-Bresse.

"For two years, we have experienced a lot locally, in our small parishes, in our dioceses, remotely, and finally (...) we can meet together around the Holy Father", rejoiced with from AFP Mgr Luc Ravel, Archbishop of Strasbourg.

This canonization "gives a universal breadth to Saint Charles de Foucauld, it is to rejoin basically what he always wanted to be and what Pope Francis tells us at the end of his encyclical "Fratelli tutti" (all brothers)" , he added, in reference to the nickname of the hermit of the desert, the “universal brother”.

“Great emotion”

"As unfortunately distances, tensions and wars increase in the world, may these new saints inspire ways of dialogue, especially the hearts and minds of those who occupy positions of responsibility, and are called to be protagonists of peace and not of war”, declared the pope at the end of the mass.

Canonization - the final step towards "holiness" in the Catholic Church, following beatification - requires three conditions: to have been dead for at least five years, to have led an exemplary Christian life and to have performed at least two miracles.

Three French canonized this Sunday

The beatification trial of Charles de Foucauld, who was assassinated in 1916 in Tamanrasset, in the Algerian desert south, began in the 1930s. He was declared “blessed” in 2005 by Pope Benedict XVI.

After recovering from cancer in 1984, a second miracle was attributed to him by the Vatican: the unusual story of a young carpenter from Saumur (central France), who survived in 2016 a fall of 15 meters on a bench, despite a pierced abdomen.

He is not the only Frenchman... Indeed, among these ten “canonized” figures are the French religious Marie Rivier (1768-1838) and César de Bus (1544-1607).

The martyr Devasahayam (Lazarus) Pillai (1712-1752), a Hindu convert to Christianity, was the first Indian layman to become a "saint".

Arrested, he was tortured for three years and then executed, having refused to recant his faith.

The other five canonized are Italian priests Luigi Maria Palazzolo and Giustino Maria Russolillo, Italian nuns Maria Domenica Mantovani and Maria di Gesù Santocanale, and Italian-Uruguayan Maria Francesca Rubatto, who becomes Uruguay's first saint.

Nancy Gómez, a 46-year-old Colombian, said she felt “great emotion” to witness the ultimate recognition of this nun “who helped children and the needy”.

After the ceremony, which lasted about two hours, the sovereign pontiff, smiling, indulged in his traditional "Popemobile" tour of the square, kissing and blessing babies and greeting the faithful massed behind the barriers.

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