(OSV News) — Ahead of All Saints’ Day Nov. 1, here are 10 saints to know from Uruguay, Argentina and Peru, where Pope Leo XIV will travel Nov. 6-17.
St. Maria Francesca Rubatto (1844-1904)
St. Maria Francesca is Uruguay’s only canonized saint, although other causes are underway. She is the Italian founder of the order now known as the Capuchin Sisters of Mother Rubatto. She was born in Carmagnola, Italy, and died in Montevideo, where she was known for her love of Jesus, missionary work and the poor. She was canonized in 2022. Her feast day is Aug. 6.
St. Benito de Jesus (1910-1934)
Also known by his baptismal name, Hector Valdivielso Saez, St. Benito was a Christian Brother martyred during the Spanish Civil War. He was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, to Spanish immigrants who later returned to Spain. He was among 10 victims of the Spanish Civil War St. John Paul II canonized in November 1999. The martyrs were all priests or brothers working in Spanish schools during the 1930s when extremist members of a Marxist rebel movement led attacks against priests and religious. St. Benito and eight fellow members of the Christian Brothers, as well as a Passionist priest, were shot to death. His feast day is Oct. 9.
St. Jose Gabriel del Rosario Brochero (1840-1914)
St. Jose Gabriel del Rosario Brochero, affectionately known as the “gaucho priest,” was born in Argentina. Ordained for the Archdiocese of Córdoba, he spent years traveling far and wide by mule to reach his flock. Pope Francis, in a message in 2013 for the priest’s beatification — a ceremony scheduled before the Argentine pope was elected — said Father Brochero “did not stay in the sacristy combing the sheep,” but went out in search of the lost. The saint gained particular fame for caring for the sick and dying, devoting himself to ensuring they received the sacraments. He eventually contracted Hansen’s disease, commonly known as leprosy, possibly from sharing a cup of mate tea with someone who was infected. His feast day is March 16.
St. Nazaria Ignacia March Mesa (1889-1943)
St. Nazaria was born in Madrid and said she first felt the call to religious life when she received her first Communion. Hearing a voice say, “You, Nazaria, follow me.” she replied, “I will follow you Jesus, as close as a human creature can.” Due to economic hardship, her family moved to Mexico where she went on to join the Little Sisters of the Abandoned Elderly despite her parents’ objections, dedicating 12 years of her life to caring for the elderly in Oruro, Bolivia. After taking part in the Ignatian spiritual exercises in 1920, she felt a strong desire to form a group that would be “a crusade of love around the church.” Sister Nazaria left her congregation in 1925 and founded a new order initially called the religious Congregation of the Missionary Sisters of the Pontifical Crusade. Three years after receiving diocesan approval, Sister Nazaria was elected as the congregation’s first superior general in 1930. Despite her ill health, she traveled to Buenos Aires, where she lived until her death. Several years after her death, her congregation’s constitution was approved by the Vatican and the order was renamed the Congregation of the Missionary Crusaders of the Church. Her feast day is July 6.
St. Artémides Zatti (1897-1951)
St. Artémides Zatti was a Salesian brother and a pharmacist in Argentina and known for his care for the sick. Born in the northern Italian city of Reggio Emilia in 1880, Artémides’ family immigrated to Bahía Blanca, Argentina, in 1897. At the age of 19, he was accepted by the Salesians to study for the priesthood. However, he was forced to abandon his studies after falling ill with tuberculosis. According to his biography published by the Vatican, he moved to the Andean city of Viedma to recover and, during that time, he made a vow to Mary to serve the sick and the poor for the rest of his life if he was healed. After his recovery, he made good on his promise and, after professing his vows as a Salesian brother in 1908, he worked at a Salesian-run hospital where he served for more than 40 years as a trained pharmacist, nurse and operating-room assistant as well as handling the hospital’s budget and personnel. St. Artémides was diagnosed with liver cancer and died in 1951. His feast day is Nov. 13.
St. María Antonia de Paz Figueroa (1730-1799)
St. María Antonia, an 18th-century laywoman known throughout Argentina as “Mama Antula,” kept alive the Jesuit teaching mission after the order was expelled from Argentina. She established the House for Spiritual Exercises that still stands today. She is the first female saint born in Argentina. Her feast day is March 7.
St. Toribio of Mogrovejo (1538-1606)
Spanish-born St. Toribio taught law in Salamanca until 1574, when he was appointed inquisitor of Granada. In 1580, though not yet a priest, he was named archbishop of Lima, Peru, with his episcopal ordination in Seville. After arriving in Lima in 1581, his 25 years of missionary service included diocesan and provincial synods, visits around the vast diocese, clergy reforms and Indigenous-language catechisms. He also introduced European religious orders into Peru, opened the first seminary in the New World and encouraged Indigenous men to become priests. His feast day is March 23.
St. Narcisa de Jesús Martillo Morán (1832-1869)
After she was orphaned as a young person in rural Ecuador, St. Narcisa moved to Guayaquil, a large coastal town, where she did manual labor for 15 years while devoting herself to prayer and good works. In 1868 she went to Lima, Peru, lodging in the hostel of the Lay Brothers of St. Dominic. This laywoman sought holiness through prayer and self-mortification, often praying alone for eight hours daily and doing penance for four hours nightly, sometimes wearing a crown of thorns or suspending herself from a cross. Her feast day is Aug. 30.
St. Rose of Lima (1586-1617)
Born in Lima, Peru, the infant Isabel de Flores got her more familiar name from an Indigenous maid who said she was “like a rose.” As a child, St. Rose was given to fasting and mortification. After her parents refused to let her enter the convent and she refused to marry, she lived at home in seclusion. At 20 she joined the Third Order of St. Dominic, using a backyard hut for prayer and caring for poor children and elderly sick in a one-room infirmary in her parents’ home. She died at 31, and was declared the first saint from the Americas in 1671. Her feast day is Aug. 23 on the universal calendar.
St. Martin de Porres (1579-1639)
This son of a freed Panamanian slave and a Spanish knight became a hero to the people of Lima, Peru, his birthplace, for his compassionate care of the sick and poor. Apprenticed at age 12 to a barber-surgeon, St. Martin also learned herbal medicine from his mother. After working for several years at a Dominican monastery as a Third Order member, he made his profession as a lay brother in 1603. He founded an orphanage and foundling hospital, ministered to African slaves, practiced great penances and experienced mystical gifts. Martin was carried to his grave by prelates and noblemen, and all Peruvians acclaimed him their beloved saint. He is the patron of hairdressers and interracial justice. His feast day is Nov. 3.
This story draws from OSV and Catholic News Service archives.
