6 beatification causes advance

October 28, 2025

In an audience with the prefect of the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, Pope Leo XIV approved six decrees.

By approving two decrees of martyrdom, Pope Leo paved the way for the beatifications of

• Father Jan Świerc and eight companions, Salesian priests killed in Nazi concentration camps in 1941-42
• Fathers Jan Bula and Václav Drbola, diocesan priests killed by the Czechoslovak Communist regime in 1951-52

The Pontiff also approved four decrees of heroic virtue, thus permitting four servants of God to be styled venerable:

• Father Angelo Angioni (1915-2008), a Sardinian missionary in Brazil and founder of the Missionary Institute of the Immaculate Heart of Mary
• Father José Merino Andrés (1905-1968), a Spanish Dominican
• Father Gioacchino of the Queen of Peace (Leone Ramognino) (1890-1985), an Italian Discalced Carmelite
• Sister María Evangelista Quintero Malfaz (1591-1648), a Spanish Cistercian nun and mystical writer

 

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Further information:

• Promulgation of Decrees of the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints (Holy See Press Office)