With the election of Pope Leo XIV, much more light has been shed on his predecessor, Pope Leo XIII, pope from 1878 to 1903.
While Pope Leo XIII has not been canonized a saint, he did interact with a number of saints who have become extremely popular in the modern era of the Catholic Church.
Pope Leo XIII lived at a very fruitful time in the Catholic Church, when the Holy Spirit was inspiring many men and women to follow Jesus Christ with their entire being.
Here is a short list of four saints who interacted with Pope Leo XIII and who needed his approval to go forward with their missions in life.
St. Thérèse of Lisieux
As a child, St. Thérèse wanted to enter a Carmelite monastery, but was too young. She insisted that she should be allowed to enter Carmel, but the local superior refused.
It so happened that her family was going on a pilgrimage to Rome and had a special audience with Pope Leo XIII.
When it came for her time to pass through the line, she burst out, "Holy Father, in honor of your Jubilee, permit me to enter Carmel at the age of 15!"
Pope Leo responded, "Go … go … You will enter if God wills it!”
This encounter helped pave the way for her eventual entrance at Carmel.
St. John Henry Newman
Shortly after Pope Leo XIII was elected to the papacy, he was introduced to the priest, John Henry Newman. According to The Oratories of England, "Pope Leo admired Newman’s fierce religious orthodoxy and appointed him as a cardinal in 1879. The news that he was to be a Cardinal came as a conclusive vindication of his orthodoxy and loyalty to the Catholic Church."
He is one of the cardinals in current and past Church history who was not ordained a bishop. When he was made cardinal, Newman specifically requested not to be consecrated as a bishop […] and he asked to be allowed to remain in Birmingham. Both requests were granted and he continued to live as a cardinal, still writing, at the Birmingham Oratory.
St. Frances Xavier Cabrini
In 1880, Mother Cabrini established the Institute of the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. She wanted to become a missionary, and went to Pope Leo XIII for guidance.
According to her order's website, "She and her sisters wanted to be missionaries in China; she visited Rome to obtain an audience with Pope Leo XIII. The Pope told Frances to go 'not to the East, but to the West' to New York rather than to China as she had expected. She was to help the thousands of Italian immigrants already in the United States."
St. John Bosco
St. John Bosco depended on papal support for his various apostolates and so when Pope Leo XIII was elected, he was able to schedule a private audience.
The Salesian website explains that "St John Bosco had his first private audience with Leo XIII on March 16, 1878; the Pontiff agreed to become the first Salesian Cooperator. He always dealt warmly with the Saint, somewhat unusual for this Pope who was rather serious and reserved."
