By Salvatore Cernuzio and Christopher Wells

Pope Leo XIV held the first Ordinary Public Consistory of his pontificate on Friday morning, with Cardinals giving their formal approval for the canonizations of eight Blesseds.

During the ceremony, the Holy Father announced that Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati and Blessed Carlo Acutis will be canonized together on 7 September.

The canonizations of the two young saints—one from the early twentieth century, the other the first twenty-first-century saint—have been greatly anticipated due to the great devotion among the faithful.

Announcement by Pope Francis

The late Pope himself had announced the canonizations of Blesseds Pier Giorgio and Carlo at the General Audience of 20 November 2024, prompting thunderous applause from the crowds gathered in St. Peter’s Square.

The canonization of Acutis, who was beatified in Assisi on 10 October 2020, had originally been scheduled for 27 April, the Second Sunday of Easter, to coincide with the Jubilee of Teenagers, while Frassati’s canonization had been set for 3 August, the culmination of the Jubilee for Youth.

The postponement of Blessed Carlo’s canonization was announced on the day of Pope Francis’ death, 21 April, and it was widely assumed that Blessed Pier Giorgio’s canonization would similarly be delayed.

Doubts about the timing of the canonizations were finally resolved with Friday’s announcement by Pope Leo, who has made the choice to enroll among the number of the saints two young men from different eras who led completely different lives, but who are nonetheless united in their love for Christ and their ability to impart that love to those whose lives they touched.

Seven blessed to be canonized in October

During Friday’s consistory, Pope Leo also set the date for the canonization of seven other Blesseds, including martyred Armenian Catholic Archbishop Ignatius Shoukrallah Maloyan, who died in 1915 during the Armenian Genocide in the Ottoman Empire; and Peter To Rot, a lay catechist who was martyred in 1945 for continuing his apostolate despite the ban imposed by the Japanese. Blessed Peter will be the first canonized saint from Papua New Guinea.

Three female religious are also among those who will be canonized in October: Vincenza Maria Poloni, founder of the Institute of the Sisters of Mercy of Verona; Maria del Monte Carmelo Rendiles (née Carmen Elena Rendiles Martínez), from Venezuela, founder of the Congregation of the Servants of Jesus; and Maria Troncatti, a professed religious of the Daughters of Mary, Help of Christians.

Finally, two other laymen will be among those enrolled in the catalogue of the saints: Bartolo Longo, founder of the famous Marian Shrine at Pompeii, and José Gregorio Hernández Cisneros, a Venezuelan doctor and member of the Secular Franciscan Order, known as “the doctor of the poor” because he treated those in need and even paid for their medicines.