Bartolo Longo and Dr. Cisneros soon to be Saints

On 24 February 2025, during the audience granted to His Eminence Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Secretary of State, and His Excellency Monsignor Edgar Peña Parra, Substitute for General Affairs, Pope Francis approved the votes in favour cast during the Ordinary Session of the Cardinal and Bishop Fathers, members of the Dicastery, for the canonization of Blessed José Gregorio Hernández Cisneros, a lay faithful born in Isnotu (Venezuela) on 26 October 1864, and who died in Caracas (Venezuela) on 29 June 1919; and Blessed Bartolo Longo, a lay faithful born in Latiano (Italy) on 10 February1841, and who died in Pompeii (Italy) on 5 October 1926. The Pope also decided to convene a Consistory regarding the upcoming canonizations.

Bartolo Longo: apostle of the Rosary for families and children in need

In the late 1800s, while a university student in Naples, the young Italian was passionate about promoting works of charity for those most in need in the area. Together with Marianna Farnararo, a widow with five young children who would later become his wife, he worked to improve the lives of the poor living on his wife’s land in the Valley of Pompeii. In 1875, he brought an image of the Virgin Mary to Pompeii, and in 1876, he began building a shrine dedicated to Our Lady of the Rosary, which was consecrated on 7 May 1891. The Shrine has since been a place of worldwide worship, a driving force for charitable projects for the afflicted, the marginalized, and the poor. In particular, Longo and his wife’s work aimed to offer shelter, education, and love to all orphaned or abandoned children and young people, providing them with a family reference for their human and social growth. He was beatified in 1980.

José Gregorio Hernández Cisneros: consecrated layman, doctor of the poor

José Gregorio Hernández Cisneros was a Venezuelan doctor. After studying, he strongly wanted to become a priest, but due to health issues, he could not. Nevertheless, he joined the Secular Franciscan Order and, with the dedication of a consecrated layman, pursued his medical profession, focusing on the marginalized and neglected. He soon became known as “the doctor of the poor,” who never asked for money, but rather was the one to often pay for their medicine. While leaving a pharmacy in Caracas in June 1919, after buying medicine for an elderly patient, he was hit by a car and died in the hospital. He was beatified in 2021.

In the same audience, Pope Francis authorized the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints to promulgate the Decrees regarding the offering of the life of the Servant of God Salvo D’Acquisto, a lay faithful born in Naples on 15 October 1920, and who died in Palidoro (Italy) on 23 September 1943; and the heroic virtues of the Servant of God Cunegonda Siwiec, a lay faithful born on 28 May 1876, in Stryszawa - Siwcówka (Poland), and who died there on 27 June 1955.

Salvo D’Acquisto: a consciously and consistently Christian way of life

Salvo D'Acquisto was a young Italian police officer who, in 1943, was accused by a Nazi unit in Palidoro of causing an explosion that caused the death of a soldier. The accusation was made against D’Acquisto and 22 other people, all of whom were sentenced to be executed. Salvo, a young 23-year-old, took responsibility for the accident, offering himself in exchange for the release of the others. He was immediately executed, and the hostages were spared.

In the Decree that defined Salvo D'Acquisto “venerable,” his heroic gesture was described not as “a simple act of civic solidarity or secular philanthropy,” but as an act rooted “in a consciously and consistently Christian way of life.”

Cunegonda Siwiec: a woman at the service of the apostolate

Cunegonda Siwiec was a young Polish woman who, at the age of 20 and about to get married, decided to dedicate herself to God. Later, she joined the Carmelite’s Third Order and devoted her energy to various forms of apostolate. She offered inherited land to build a pedagogical and educational centre for young people and adults, essentially a regular school that she – a girl who never had the chance to study – had never been able to attend. Devout to the Eucharist, Cunegonda began to experience “interior locutions” after receiving Communion, revelations from Jesus, the Virgin Mary, and the Saints, which she shared with her confessor in 1942 and transcribed until her death. Ill, she offered her life for the atonement of sins and died in 1955.

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The Holy Father Pope Francis has also authorized the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints to promulgate the Decrees regarding the Servant of God Emilio Giuseppe Kapaun, a diocesan priest from North Korea; the Servant of God Michele Maura Montaner, a diocesan priest and founder of the Congregación de las Hermanas Celadoras del Culto Eucarístico, Spain; and the Servant of God Didaco Bessi, a diocesan priest and founder of the Congregazione delle Suore Domenicane di Santa Maria del Rosario, Italy.