Pope clears path for canonization of PNG Blessed Peter To Rot

By Tiziana Campisi & Devin Watkins

The Church will soon have three new saints and a new blessed, as well as a new venerable, after Pope Francis authorized the publication of decrees related to several causes of canonization on Monday.

The Pope cleared the path to canonization for Blessed Peter To Rot, a layman martyred for the faith in present-day Papua New Guinea (PNG).

First Papuan Saint

Born on March 5, 1912, Blessed Peter was educated in the Christian faith and became a catechist, and his life was characterized by charity, humility, and dedication to the poor and orphans.

During the Japanese occupation of PNG during the Second World War, Blessed Peter continued to prepare couples for marriage as missionaries were imprisoned. When his pastoral activity was forbidden, he carried out his apostolate in secret, fully aware that he was risking his life.

He staunchly defended the sanctity of marriage and opposed the practice of polygamy, confronting even his older brother, who had taken a second wife. Blessed Peter’s brother reported him to the police, and he was sentenced to two months in prison, where he died of poisoning in July 1945.

Pope St. John Paul II beatified Blessed Peter To Rot on January 17, 1995, in Port Moresby.

Armenian Archbishop martyred during genocide

The Pope also cleared the way for the canonization of Blessed Ignatius Choukrallah Maloyan, who was born in 1869 in Mardin, in present-day Türkiye.

Ordained a priest in 1883 in Lebanon, he took the Christian name Ignatius and became known as an excellent preacher in both Arabic and Turkish, devoting himself to parish ministry and the study of sacred texts in Alexandria, Egypt.

In 1911, Pope Pius X appointed him Archbishop of Mardin during the Synod of Armenian Bishops in Rome, which examined the situation in Turkey after the rise of the Young Turks movement.

After Turkish forces entered the First World War, Archbishop Maloyan was arrested along with 13 priests and 600 other Christians in the tumult that included forced enlistments and harassment against Christians, particularly Armenian Christians.

Archbishop Maloyan and his companions were executed on June 3, 1915, when they refused to renounce the faith. He was beatified by Pope St. John Paul II on October 7, 2001.

First Venezuelan-born saint

Venezuela will also have its first native-born saint, as the Pope recognized a miracle attributed to Blessed Maria del Monte Carmelo, born Carmen Elena Rendíles Martínez in Caracas on August 11, 1903.

She joined the Congregation of the Servants of Jesus of the Blessed Sacrament in 1927 and then left with several other Latin American sisters to found the Congregation of the Servants of Jesus in 1946.

She spent the final years of her life in a wheelchair following a car accident in 1974 and died on May 9, 1977.

The miracle attributed to her intercession involved the 2015 healing of a young woman in Caracas with a heart condition.

Miracle of Italian priest, heroic virtues of Brazilian priest

Pope Francis also recognized a miracle attributed to Fr. Carmelo De Palma, an Italian priest from Bari, who was born on January 27, 1876.

Inspired by the Benedictine charism, Venerable De Palma dedicated himself to offering spiritual direction for priests, nuns, and seminarians, becoming known as a “hero of the confessional.”

The miracle involved the healing of a Benedictine nun in 2013 afflicted by a debilitating degenerative illness.

On Monday, the Pope also recognized the heroic virtues of Servant of God José Antônio de Maria Ibiapina, a 19th-century Brazilian politician-turned-priest.