The pope advances the causes of the sanctity of two women and three men

Pope Francis advanced the causes of the sanctity of two women and three men, including an Italian lay woman who was once believed to be demonically possessed because of her violent convulsions after drinking unsafe water.

In a meeting on 10 July with Cardinal Giovanni Angelo Becciu, prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, the pope recognized a miracle attributed to Maria Antonia Sama, which paves the way for his beatification.

Sama was born into a poor family in the Italian region of Calabria in 1875. At the age of 11, while returning home washing clothes near a river, Sama drank from a nearby pool of water.

At home, she became immobile and subsequently experienced convulsions, which at that time led many to believe that she was possessed by evil spirits, according to the official website of the cause of Sama's holiness.

After an unsuccessful exorcism in a Carthusian monastery, she began to stand and showed signs of healing only after a reliquary containing the remains of San Bruno, founder of the Carthusian order, was placed in front of her.

However, her recovery was short-lived after she suffered from arthritis, causing bed restraint for the next 60 years. During those years, the people of her city gathered to take care of her after her mother died. The Congregation of the Sisters of the Sacred Heart then took care of Sama until his death in 1953, at the age of 78.

The other decrees approved by Pope Francis on July 10 recognized:

- The heroic virtues of the Italian Jesuit father Eusebio Francesco Chini, who served as a missionary in 1645th century Mexico. He was born in 1711 and died in Magdalena, Mexico in XNUMX.

- The heroic virtues of Father Mariano Jose de Ibarguengoitia y Zuloaga, a Spanish priest from Bilbao, Spain, who help found the Institute of the Servants of Jesus. He was born in 1815 and died in 1888.

- The heroic virtues of Mother Maria Felix Torres, founder of the Compagnia del Salvatore and of the Mater Salvatoris schools. She was born in Albelda, Spain, in 1907 and died in Madrid in 2001.

- The heroic virtues of Angiolino Bonetta, lay person and member of the Association of Silent Workers of the Cross, an apostolate dedicated to the sick and disabled. He was born in 1948 and died in 1963.