John Paul Adds 27 Mexican Saints to the Church

Pope John Paul II on Sunday gave the Roman Catholic church 27 new Mexican saints, all but two of them killed under anti-clerical governments in the 1920s and 1930s.

About 20,000 Mexicans were among a crowd of nearly 50,000 faithful who attended the canonization ceremony in St. Peter’s Square here under a harsh sun.

The best known of the 25 martyrs is Father Cristobal Magallanes, who is believed to have pardoned his killers as he was shot by a firing squad in 1927.

Also made saint was a nun, Maria de Jesus Sacramentado, who died in 1959 at the age of 90. In 1886, she had joined a group of pious women who ran a small hospital for the poor that later became known as the Daughters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

Another new saint is Jose Maria de Yermo y Parres, a priest who died at age 52 in 1904. He founded schools, hospitals, nursing homes and orphanages.

Images of the new saints were hung on the facade at St. Peter’s Basilica. and many Mexicans waved their country’s flag or snapped photos during the ceremony.

Giving his homily in Spanish, John Paul paid tribute to the martyrs--22 priests and three lay people who aided clergymen.

Recalling “the harsh trials the church underwent in Mexico in those convulsive years,” the pope said: “Today Mexican Christians, aided by the testimony of these witnesses of the faith, can live in peace and harmony, bringing to society the richness of those evangelical values.”

Before Sunday’s ceremony, Mexico had only one national saint, San Felipe de Jesus, a monk.