Canonization Rites at the Vatican, June 3, 2007

Pope Benedict XVI named four new saints in a crowd  of 40,000 to 50,000 people armed with umbrellas who braved the heavy downpour and chilly wind to witness the two hour ceremony.

The Pope canonized the following :

The Rev. George Preca of Malta who founded the Society of Christian Doctrine, a group of lay people who teach the faith to others.

The Rev. Szymon z Lipnicy of Poland, a Franciscan monk who comforted the victims of the plague that broke out in Krakow from 1482-83 and died of it himself.

The Rev.Charles of St. Andrew, who was born Karel Van Sint Andries Houben in Netherlands in 1821. Although he never mastered the English language, Father Charles spent much of his life in England and Ireland, where he achieved fame as a miracle worker with thousands flocking to his monastery outside Dublin to seek his blessing. He was canonized after the inexplicable cure of a man from his hometown who was suffering from a painful gangrenous and perforated appendicitis.

Sister Marie Eugenie de Jesus Milleret, a French nun who in 1839  founded the Religious of the Assumption to educate young girls. Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo attended the canonization rites with a Philippine child who was diagnosed with severe  brain damage . She was cured after her parents and the Assumption sisters prayed for Sister Marie Eugenie’s intercession. The miracle the Vatican needed to canonize the nun.