Pope Advances Causes of Six Individuals To Sainthood

Pope Leo XIV has advanced the causes of six individuals to sainthood on March 23, 2025.

The individuals include a cardinal, four religious, and a Catholic lay faithful.

Servant of God, Ludovico Altieri, Bishop of Albano, Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church. He was born July 17, 1805, in Rome, Italy, and died on August 11, 1867, in the Italian hill town of Albano Laziale.

Servant of God, Edward Joseph Flanagan, Diocesan Priest and founder of Boys Town. Born July 13, 1886, in Ballymore Island, he died on May 15, 1948, in Berlin, Germany.

Servant of God, Henri Caffarel, Diocesan Priest and founder of the association ‘Teams of Our Lady’ (Equipes Notre-Dame), and the secular institute ‘Fraternity of Our Lady of the Resurrection’. He was born on July 30, 1903, in Lyon, France, and died on September 18, 1996, in Beauvais.

Servant of God, Stanislawa Samulowska (nee Barbara), is a professed religious of the Company of the Daughters of Charity of St Vincent de Paul. She was born on January 30, 1865, in Woryty, in present-day Poland, and died on December 6, 1950, in Guatemala City, Guatemala.

Servant of God, Maria of Bethlehem of the Heart of Jesus, Romero Algarin (nee Maria Dolores), a professed religious of the Congregation of the Handmaids of the Divine Heart, was born on October 7, 1916, and died on November 12, 1977.

Finally, Servant of God Giuseppe Castagnetti, lay faithful and father of a family, born March 15, 1909, in Montebaranzone, Italy, and died on June 22, 1965.

These men and women’s road to sainthood was advanced via Pope Leo XIV’s order to the Prefect of the Dicastery for the Causes of Sainthood, Cardinal Marcello Semeraro, on March 23, 2026, to promulgate several decrees, including the decrees on heroic virtues.

With the decrees on heroic virtues, the candidates receive the title of Venerable Servant of God, or simply Venerable.