Pope Francis gives Catholic church hundreds of new saints

Two Latin American women canonised by Argentinian pontiff, as well as 813 'martyrs of Otranto' slain in 1480 by Turkish invaders

guardian.co.uk, Associated Press in the Vatican City, Sunday 12 May 2013

A picture hangs at St Peter's of Laura of St Catherine of Siena, one of the new
 saints named by Pope Francis in his first canonisation mass. Photograph:
Filippo Monteforte/AFP/Getty Images

Pope Francis has given the Catholic church a raft of new saints, including hundreds of 15th-century martyrs who were beheaded for refusing to convert to Islam, as he led his first canonisation ceremony before tens of thousands of people in St Peter's Square.

The "martyrs of Otranto" were 813 Italians who were killed in the southern Italian city in 1480 for defying demands by Turkish invaders to renounce Christianity.

The South American pope also canonised two Latin American women, including Colombia's first saint: a nun, Laura of St Catherine of Siena, who journeyed with five other women into the forests in 1914 to be a teacher and spiritual guide to indigenous people. Colombia's president, Juan Manuel Santos, was among VIPs attending the ceremony.

Also canonised was Maria Guadalupe Garcia Zavala, a Mexican who dedicated herself to nursing the sick and helped Catholics avoid persecution during a government crackdown on the faith in the 1920s. Also known as Mother Lupita, she hid the archbishop of Guadalajara in an eye clinic for more than a year after fearful local Catholic families refused to shelter him.

The new saints were approved for canonisation in a decree read by Pope Benedict XVI on 11 February, during the same ceremony in which he announced his resignation as pontiff. Benedict, the first pope to retire in 600 years, is now devoting himself to prayer and living in a monastery on the Vatican grounds.

Francis told the crowd that the martyrs were a source of inspiration, especially for "so many Christians, who, right in these times and in so many parts of the world, still suffer violence", and prayed that they would receive "the courage of loyalty and to respond to evil with good".

That was seen as a reference to Christian churches that have been attacked in Nigeria and Iraq, as well as Catholics in China loyal to the Vatican who have been subject to harassment and sometimes jail over past decades.

Francis, the first pope from the Jesuit order, praised the Colombian saint for "instilling hope" in indigenous people. He said she taught them in a way that "respected their culture". Many Catholic missionaries over the centuries have been criticised for demanding that natives renounce local traditions viewed as primitive.

He hailed the Mexican saint for renouncing a comfortable life to work with the sick and poor. Mother Lupita's example, said Francis, should encourage people not to "get wrapped up in themselves, their own problems, their own ideas, their own interests, but to go out and meet those who need attention, comprehension, and help".