5 beatification causes advance, including religious sister who died in Missouri
April 28, 2026
During an April 27 meeting with the prefect of the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, Pope Leo XIV approved decrees that advanced five beatification causes.
Pope Leo recognized the martyrdom of the Servants of God Estanislao Ortega García and 48 companions, members of the Institute of the Brothers of Christian Instruction of Saint Gabriel, and of Father Manuel Berenguer Clusellas, a diocesan priest, slain out of hatred for the faith in Catalonia in 1936, during the Spanish Civil War.
Pope Leo also recognized the offering of life of Pedro Manuel Salado Alba (1968-2012), a Spanish lay member of Hogar de Nazaret, who died after saving seven children from drowning in Ecuador. In his 2017 apostolic letter Maiorem hac dilectionem, Pope Francis created the “offering of life” as a category analogous to martyrdom in sainthood causes; in recognizing Salado’s offering of life, Pope Leo thus paved the way for his beatification.
Pope Leo also approved decrees recognizing the heroic virtues of three Servants of God, who now may be styled venerable:
- Sister Maria Eletta of Jesus, O.C.D. (1605-1663), who founded the Discalced Carmelite monastery in Prague
- Sister Mary Teresa of the Most Holy Trinity Ysseldijk, D.C.J. (1897-1926), a member of the Carmelite Sisters of the Divine Heart of Jesus; born in the Netherlands, she served and died in Missouri
- Maria Raffaella De Giovanni (1870-1933), foundress of the Third Order of Minims of Saint Francis of Paola
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