6 beatification causes advance, including Maronite Patriarch, Spanish martyrs
May 23, 2026
During a May 22 meeting with the prefect of the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, Pope Leo XIV approved decrees that advanced six beatification causes.
In approving a miracle attributed to the intercession of Venerable Elias Peter Hoayek (1843-1931), Pope Leo paved the way for the Maronite Patriarch’s beatification. Patriarch Hoayek, who led the Maronite Catholic Church from 1899 to 1931, also founded the Maronite Sisters of the Holy Family.
In recognizing the martyrdom of the Servants of God Francisco González de Córdova and 79 companions, Pope Leo also paved the way for their beatification. The 80 priests, religious, and lay faithful were slain in the territory of the Diocese of Satandar in 1936 and 1937, during the Spanish Civil War.
Finally, the Pontiff recognized the heroic virtues of four religious, who may now be styled venerable:
- Father Costantino Vendrame, S.D.B. (1893-1957), an Italian Salesian missionary in India
- Brother Nazareno da Pula, O.F.M. Cap. (1911-1992), an Italian sergeant who was imprisoned by the British for four years during World War II and subsequently became a Capuchin Franciscan friar
- Sister María Ana Alberdi Echezarreta, O.I.C. (1912-1998), the Spanish abbess of a monastery of Conceptionist sisters
- Brother Jean-Thierry of the Child Jesus and of the Passion, O.C.D. (1982-2006), a Cameroonian Discalced Carmelite friar who died of bone cancer
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