IMAGE: CNS photo/Vatican Media
By
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Pope Francis added an Italian teenager to
the list of people
he will formally recognize
as saints Oct. 14 during the monthlong meeting of the world Synod of Bishops on
young people.
During an “ordinary public consistory” July 19,
Pope Francis announced he would declare Blessed Nunzio Sulprizio a saint the same day he will canonize Blesseds
Oscar Romero, Paul VI and four others. An ordinary public consistory is a
meeting of the pope, cardinals and promoters of sainthood causes that formally
ends the sainthood process.
Sulprizio was born April 13, 1817, in the Abruzzo region near Pescara.
Both of his parents died when he was an infant and his maternal grandmother,
who raised him, died when he was nine.
An uncle took him under his guardianship and had the
young boy work for him in his blacksmith shop. However, the work was too
strenuous for a boy his age and he developed a problem in his leg, which became
gangrenous.
A military colonel took care of Sulprizio, who was
eventually hospitalized in Naples. The young teen faced tremendous pain with
patience and serenity and offered up his sufferings to God.
He died in Naples in 1836 at the age of 19. He was declared blessed in 1963 by Blessed Paul
VI, who will be canonized together with the teen.
During the ceremony, Blessed Paul had said, “Nunzio
Sulprizio will tell you that the period of youth should not be considered the
age of free passions, of inevitable falls, of invincible crises, of decadent
pessimism, of harmful selfishness. Rather, he will rather tell you how being
young is a grace.”
Together with Blesseds Paul and Romero, Sulprizio will be
canonized along with: Father Francesco Spinelli of Italy, founder of the
Sisters Adorers of the Blessed Sacrament; Father Vincenzo Romano, who worked
with the poor of Naples, Italy, until his death in 1831; Mother Catherine
Kasper, the German founder of the religious congregation, the Poor Handmaids of
Jesus Christ; and Nazaria Ignacia March Mesa, the Spanish founder of the
Congregation of the Missionary Crusaders of the Church.
The Oct. 14 date for the canonizations had already been
announced during an ordinary public consistory in mid-May.
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