The year 2025 has been a significant period for the Catholic Church, with the canonization of two figures very dear to the faithful: Blessed Carlo Acutis and Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati, both raised to the altars on September 7 by Pope Leo XIV in St. Peter’s Square. These events add to a series of beatifications that reflect the diversity of holiness in the Church, from martyrs to pastors and committed laypeople.
Outstanding canonizations
The canonization of Carlo Acutis, a young Italian layman born in 1991, and of Pier Giorgio Frassati, a Turin engineer from the early 20th century, underscores the importance of daily life lived with intense faith. Acutis, known for his devotion to the Eucharist and his use of technology to spread the faith, died of leukemia in 2006. Frassati, for his part, died of polio in 1925, leaving a legacy of charity and love for the poor. Pope Leo XIV highlighted in his homily that both «cultivated their love for God and their brothers through simple acts, within everyone’s reach: daily Mass, prayer, and especially Eucharistic adoration.»
Beatifications under Francis’ pontificate
The last beatification of Pope Francis’ pontificate was that of Father Giovanni Merlini, of the Missionaries of the Precious Blood, celebrated on January 12 at the Basilica of St. John Lateran. Born in 1795, Merlini was a spiritual director and preacher who promoted the extension of the Feast of the Most Precious Blood to the whole Church. His beatification was based on a miracle that occurred in 2015, when a patient with serious health problems recovered inexplicably after the intercession of the venerable.
First beatifications of Leo XIV
Pope Leo XIV began his pontificate with the beatification of Father Camilo Costa de Beauregard, on May 17 in Chambéry, France. This diocesan priest, who briefly abandoned the faith in his youth, dedicated his life to caring for orphans after a cholera epidemic. He twice refused the office of bishop to remain at the head of his orphanage. The miracle that allowed his beatification occurred in 1910, when a child with an eye injury was cured after the application of a relic.
Martyrs of the faith in Poland and other countries
On May 24, Father Stanisław Streich was beatified as a martyr in Poznań, Poland. Killed in 1938 by a communist during Mass, Streich had been a pastor dedicated to the poor and workers, which earned him the enmity of communist ideologues. On May 31, 15 sisters of the Congregation of St. Catherine, martyrs in 1945 at the hands of Soviet soldiers, were beatified in Braniewo. These religious chose to stay with the sick and orphans despite the danger, dying of typhus or torture.
Witnesses of justice and chastity
On June 15, Floribert Bwana Chui, a 26-year-old Congolese layman, was beatified as a martyr in Rome. A customs officer, he refused to accept bribes to allow the importation of spoiled food, and was kidnapped and tortured to death in 2007. On July 12, Brother Lycarión May, a Swiss Marist, was beatified in Barcelona for his martyrdom during the Tragic Week of 1909, when he was killed by revolutionaries after refusing to abandon his school.
Martyrs in Hungary and Estonia
On September 6, Mária Magdolna Bódi, a Hungarian laywoman, was beatified in Veszprém. She defended her chastity against a Soviet soldier in 1945, being shot dead. That same day, Archbishop Eduard Profittlich, a Jesuit and apostolic administrator of Estonia, was beatified in Tallinn. He died in prison in 1942 after being tortured by Soviet troops.
Original source: www.catholicworldreport.com (published December 31, 2025)
Photo: Lance Lozano on Unsplash
