Pope Francis canonizes two new saints: St. Artemide Zatti and St. Giovanni Battista Scalabrini

The Catholic Church gained two new saints on Sunday as Pope Francis canonized St. Artemide Zatti and St. Giovanni Battista Scalabrini.

The two saints were both born in Italy in the 19th century and ministered to others amid the massive emigration of hundreds of thousands of Italians each year at the turn of the 20th century.

Scalabrini is known for founding a missionary order that ministered to immigrants, while Zatti was himself an immigrant, leaving Italy for Argentina with his family in 1897 at the age of 16.

In an outdoor Mass in St. Peter’s Square on Oct. 9, the crowd chanted the Litany of the Saints as the pope prepared to solemnly declare the two saints.

With his pastoral staff in hand, Pope Francis proclaimed in Latin: “For the honor of the Blessed Trinity, the exaltation of the Catholic faith and the increase of Christian life, by the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul, and our own, after due deliberation and frequent prayer for divine assistance, and having sought the counsel of many of our brother bishops, we declare and define Blessed Giovanni Battista Scalabrini and Artemide Zatti to be Saints and we enroll them among the Saints, decreeing that they are to be venerated as such by the whole Church.”

After the Gospel was chanted in both Latin and Greek, Pope Francis said in his homily that the two new saints can intercede to “help us to walk together, without walls of division; and to cultivate that nobility of soul, so pleasing to God, which is gratitude.”

The pope said that the canonization made him think of the many suffering migrants today, mentioning refugees from Ukraine and immigrants who attempt to cross the Mediterranean to reach Europe.