By Philip Pullella

VATICAN CITY, (Reuters) – Pope Francis declared 10 persons saints of Rome’s Catholic Church on Sunday. These included an anti-Nazi Dutch priest who was killed in Dachau and a French monk who was assassinated in Algeria.

At the beginning of the ceremony, the 85-year old pope was taken to the altar by a driver who had been in a wheelchair due to leg and knee pain. The largest crowd since the lifting of COVID restrictions in January was there.

Francis stood up to greet each participant individually, but limped behind the altar to take a seat. Francis read the homily from a seated position, but he stood for other Mass parts. He spoke in strong voices, sometimes going against script. After reading, he walked to greet cardinals.

Francis took the time to read the canonization proclamations from his seat at the altar. Ten cheers were raised by the crowd when each of the 10 saints was officially declared.

Titus Brandsma (a Carmelite member) was president of Nijmegen Catholic University. His opposition to Nazi ideology began before World War Two.

He was a vocal opponent of anti-Jewish legislation during Nazi occupation. He encouraged Dutch Catholic newspapers not t print Nazi propaganda.

After being arrested in 1942, he spent time in Dutch jails, before being transferred to Dachau (near Munich), where he was killed in a lethal injection. His death was attributed to “in hatred for the faith”, which is what the Church considers a martyr.

Charles de Foucauld is the other new saint well-known. He was a French soldier, nobleman and explorer of 19th century France. Later, he experienced personal conversion and became priest.

His first Tuareg French dictionary, published in 1896, was translated into French by him. De Foucauld was kidnapped by Bedouin tribe raiders in Algeria and killed in the attempt to capture him.

Devasahayam Pillai (who was executed for having converted to Christianity in India 18th Century) and Cesar De Bus (16th century French priest, who created a religious order), were among the eight declared saints.

There were also three Italian nuns, two priests, and three nuns from Italy. All of them lived between 16th- and 20th century.

Francis ended the Mass by stating that the saints were committed to the spiritual, social, and economic growth of the nations they served and for the well-being of the human family. However, sadly, the world is becoming more distant, and tensions, conflicts, and wars are growing.

In an apparent reference towards Ukraine, he stated that the world’s leaders needed to be “protagonists to peace and not to war”

All new saints were credited for miracles.

Roman Catholicism teaches miracles can only be performed by God. However, saints are said to intercede for those who ask them.

Many other Catholics who died in Nazi concentration camps were also declared saints. These include Maximilian Kolbe, the Polish priest and Sister Edith Stein (a German nun converted to Judaism). They were both killed at Auschwitz in Nazi-occupied Poland.