Pope to canonize three more saints on May 15

By Vatican News staff reporter

Pope Francis on Friday presided over an ordinary public consistory of cardinals to decide on the date of the canonization of Dutch Carmelite priest Titus Brandsma; French Sister Maria Rivier, foundress of the Sisters of the Presentation of Mary; and Italian Sister Mary of Jesus, foundress of the Congregation of the Capuchin Sisters of the Immaculata of Lourdes.

Father Titus Brandsma was a Dutch theologian, journalist, and author who forcefully opposed and spoke out against the anti-Jewish laws the Nazis were passing in Germany before World War II. He was arrested in January 1942 when Germany invaded the Netherlands. The Nazis told him that he would be allowed to live a quiet life in a monastery if he would announce that Catholic newspapers should publish Nazi propaganda. The Carmelite priest refused, for which he was subject to hardship and starvation in the Dachau concentration camp. He died after he was injected with carbolic acid on July 26 that same year. He was 61.  

Sister Maria Rivier was born on 19 December 1768 in the eastern French town of Montpezat-sous-Bauzon. When she was 16 months old, she fell off her bed and broke her hip, leading to 10 years of suffering. The ordeal aroused a desire in her to dedicate herself to God.  Later, she had another fall which laid her low again. But her determination and trust in God led her to full recovery in 1777.  

When the French Revolution broke out, despite the hostility of the insurgents towards the religious communities, she founded a community in 1796, which five years later took the name of the Congregation of the Sisters of the Presentation of Mary. Shed died on February 3, 1838.

Blessed Sister Maria of Jesus, born Carolina Santocanale, was the foundress of the Capuchin Sisters of Immaculate Mary of Lourdes. The order continues to work with the sick, the poor, the disabled, and the abandoned.

The 3 will join a group of 7 others whose May 15 canonization had been decided earlier by the Pope on May 3 last year.  Among them is Indian martyr Devasahayam (Lazarus).