Canonization is the declaration of a deceased person as an officially recognized saint, specifically, the official act of a Christian communion declaring a person worthy of public veneration and entering their name in the canon catalogue of saints, or authorized list of that communion's recognized saints.
Maria Teresa Goretti was an Italian virgin martyr of the Catholic Church, and one of the youngest saints to be canonized. She was born to a farming family. Her father died when she was nine, and the family had to share a house with another family, the Serenellis. She took over household duties while her mother and siblings worked in the fields.
Angela Merici was an Italian Catholic religious educator who founded the Company of St. Ursula in 1535 in Brescia, in which women dedicated their lives to the service of the church through the education of girls.
The Korean Martyrs were the victims of religious persecution against Catholics during the 19th century in Korea. Among them are 103 Saints and 124 Blesseds officially recognized by the Catholic Church.
José Luis Sánchez del Río was a Mexican Cristero who was put to death by government officials because he refused to renounce his Catholic faith. His death was seen as a largely political venture on the part of government officials in their attempt to stamp out dissent and crush religious freedom in the area. He was dubbed "Joselito."
Francisco de Jesus Marto and Jacinta de Jesus Marto were siblings from Aljustrel, a small hamlet near Fátima, Portugal, who, with their cousin Lúcia dos Santos (1907–2005), reportedly witnessed three apparitions of the Angel of Peace in 1916, and several apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary at Cova da Iria in 1917. The title Our Lady of Fátima was given to the Virgin Mary as a result, and the Sanctuary of Fátima became a major centre of global Roman Catholic pilgrimage.
Devasahayam Pillai or Mar Lazarus Sahada was an Indian layman and martyr of the Catholic Church. He was canonized as a saint of the church by Pope Francis on 15 May 2022.
Cecília Schelingová, also known as Zdenka Schelingová, was a Slovak Roman Catholic religious sister of the Congregation of the Sisters of Charity of the Holy Cross and a victim of communist persecution in the former Czechoslovakia. Schelingová worked for the most part in the hospital at Bratislava before her arrest and aided priests fleeing persecution from the totalitarian communist regime in her home nation.
The Martyrs of Nowogródek, also known as the Blessed Martyrs of Nowogródek, the Eleven Nuns of Nowogródek or Blessed Mary Stella and her Ten Companions, were a group of members of the Sisters of the Holy Family of Nazareth, a Polish Roman Catholic religious congregation, executed by the Gestapo in August 1943 in occupied Poland. They have been declared Blessed by virtue of martyrdom by Pope John Paul II on 5 March 2000.
Agnes Tsao Kou Ying, or Cao Guiying, was a Qing dynasty Chinese layperson who was martyred for preaching the Gospel in Guangxi. She was canonized a martyr-saint by Pope John Paul II on 1 October 2000.
Roman Volodymyrovych Lysko was a Ukrainian Greek Catholic priest and martyr.
Giuseppe Girotti, OP was an Italian Dominican priest who was a biblical scholar and a professor of theology. During World War II, he worked to aid Jewish people amid the Nazi Holocaust. Girotti was arrested in 1944 and moved from prison to prison before being imprisoned at the Dachau concentration camp, where he befriended Josef Beran and Carlo Manziana.
Maria Antonina Kratochwil was beatified by Pope John Paul II as one of the 108 Martyrs of World War II. She tried to help the Jews survive during the Holocaust. A member of the School Sisters of Notre Dame residing in the Kresy region of the Polish Second Republic before the war began; she was arrested along with her sisters by Nazi Germans a year after Operation Barbarossa of 1941, and singled out for anti-Nazi activities. She was severely beaten while in prison, contracted typhus, and died upon her hasty release.
Vinçenc Prennushi was an Albanian Roman Catholic professed member from the Order of Friars Minor and he served as the Archbishop of Durrës from 1940 until his death. Prennushi became a noted poet and writer and published several works on national and international matters.
The Martyrs of Tlaxcala were three Mexican Roman Catholic teenagers from the Tlaxcaltec people of the modern state of Tlaxcala: Cristobal (1514/15–1527) and the two companions Antonio (1516/17–1529) and Juan (1516/17–1529). The three teenagers were converts from the Nahua religion of their families to the Catholic Church in Mexico and received their educations from missionaries of the Order of Friars Minor who baptized them while evangelizing in the area. Their activism and evangelical zeal led to their honour killings by fellow Tlaxcaltec people, including their close relatives, who detested their newfound faith and recognized them as dangers to their values and rituals.
The Martyrs of Albania were a collective group of 38 individuals killed during the Communist regime in Albania from 1945 until 1974. All were born at various times between 1874 and 1935; the group included Albanians and Italians as well as one German. Each of these individuals, apart from four, were part of the religious life as either priests or religious and served as either missionaries or educators with a great deal spending their educational formation in Italian and Austrian cities.
Veronica Antal was a Romanian Roman Catholic professed member from the Secular Franciscan Order and member of the Militia Immaculatae. Antal was known for her strong faith and her love for the Mother of God; she had long desired to enter the religious life as a nun but settled on the Secular Franciscans after the communist regime suppressed convents and monasteries in Romania. She has been titled as the "Maria Goretti of Romania" due to the manner of her death similar to that of Maria Goretti. Called the "Martyr of Chastity" by the townspeople, she was beatified by Pope Francis in 2018 — the first Romanian woman to become a beata.
Alojzije Palić was a Kosovo Croat Franciscan and Catholic priest in Albania and martyr, murdered by Montenegrin soldiers in 1913. He was beatified in Shkodër on 16 November 2024, together with don Ivan Gazula (1893–1927).
