Lenten campaign 2026
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On October 19, 2025, Pope Leo XIV canonized eight Blesseds — among them, Venezuela’s first saints: Dr. José Gregorio Hernández and Sister María del Carmen Rendiles.
Pope Leo’s first consistory, held June 13, finalized dates for the canonizations, which had been approved by Pope Francis earlier in the Jubilee year, before his passing.
Who are they?
José Gregorio Hernández, known across Latin America as “the doctor of the poor,” was a physician and devout Catholic who served Venezuela’s sick with profound humility.
His beatification came in 2021, following the miraculous recovery of Yaxury Solórzano Ortega, a young girl who survived a gunshot to the head after her mother prayed for Hernández’s intercession.
Sister María del Carmen Rendiles, founder of the Servants of Jesus, was born in Caracas in 1903. Her miracle involved the sudden healing of a Venezuelan doctor in 2003, acknowledged by the Church as medically inexplicable. She was beatified in 2018.
In Venezuela, the Church celebrated with the national campaign “Santos para todos” (Saints for All) to celebrate Hernández and Rendiles.
Other firsts
The October canonization ceremony at the Vatican also recognized six others: Armenian Archbishop and martyr Ignatius Choukrallah Maloyan; Papua New Guinean catechist Peter To Rot (the first saint of his nation); Italian Sisters Vincenza Maria Poloni and Maria Troncatti; and Italian layman Bartolo Longo, a devoted promoter of the Rosary.
While both Hernández and Rendiles lived in different times and served in different ways, their paths to sainthood affirm a truth that transcends borders: Holiness begins in daily acts of service, compassion, and faith. Their stories join the Church’s universal memory — not as distant icons, but as familiar companions from Venezuela’s own soil.
