800 saints canonized

800 saints canonized, Pope Francis has proclaimed the first saints of his pontificate: 800 Italians who were beheaded by Ottoman raiders in the 15th century after they refused to convert to Islam.
It is the biggest group canonisation yet.

In his homily during the canonisation ceremony on Sunday, the Pope sounded the alarm over the persecution of Christians, stating: ‘‘We ask God to sustain the many Christians who, today, in many parts of the world, right now, still suffer violence.’’

The Vatican has previously expressed concern over attacks on Christians in the Middle East, including Egypt’s Coptic Christians.

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The 800 sainted martyrs were murdered in 1480, after they were captured during a raid on Otranto in Puglia in southern Italy, and their skulls still line the walls of Otranto cathedral.

However, the ceremony was marred by a doctor’s claim that a nun’s ‘‘miracle’’ cancer cure, which paved the way for the mass canonisation, was due to chemotherapy rather than divine intervention.
The nun, Sister Francesca Levote, made an allegedly miraculous recovery from ovarian cancer in 1981 - after she was given little time to live - when fellow nuns prayed to the Otranto martyrs.

Levote’s return to health was deemed by the Vatican as inexplicable and the miracle required to elevate the 800 to sainthood. Salvatore Toma, a doctor who treated Levote, claimed the nun’s recovery was the work of medical science, not God.

Dr Toma told Italian daily La Repubblica that he and his team treated the nun with a combination of chemotherapy and radiotherapy. ‘‘That is how we observed, after about two years, a complete clinical response,’’ he said. ‘‘I cannot sustain that it was a miracle, but a scientific event,’’ added Dr Toma, who treated Levote in Genova.
Pope Emeritus Benedict issued a decree in 2007 stating that the Otranto martyrs were ‘‘killed out of hatred for their faith’’. The martyrs were beatified in 1771 - the first required step before canonisation.

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