In addition to approving the second miracle for Fatima seers Francisco and Jacinto Marto, the Vatican approved the martyrdom of a young Indian nun murdered in 1995 whose attacker later repented and converted, and the heroic virtue of a young girl who lived for 22 years with a disfiguring skin disease.

According to the Vatican Press Office, Pope Francis has authorized the Congregation for the Causes of the Saints to advance decrees regarding 78 candidates for sainthood, martyrdom, and/or heroic virtue.

Most notably, the pope approved the second miracle needed for the canonization of Fatima seers Francisco and Jacinto Marto, who were beatified in the year 2000. Although no date has been set yet, many are hoping that the canonization will take place when the Pope visits Fatima for the 100th anniversary of the apparitions in May of this year.

The pope also recognized the martyrdom of Servant of God Regina Mariam Vattalil (née Rani Maria), a professed sister of the Franciscan Clarist Congregation who was killed in hatred of the faith near Indore, India 22 years ago.

Devoted to the education of children and relief for the oppressed and marginalized, many of the local landlords were offended by Sister Rani Maria's work with the landless poor and eventually hired a hit man to kill her. She was on a bus on her way to her home to Kerala on February 25, 1995 when an assassin named Samandar Singh began to stab her. The man followed her when she ran off the bus, inflicting a total of over 40 major injuries to her body before she collapsed. All the while, she was heard praying, “Jesus! Jesus!” before dying on the side of the road.

But that wasn’t the end of the story. Rani Maria’s family made international headlines when they forgave Singh, a gesture that made the man begin to regret what he had done. He is now leading an exemplary life after serving time for the crime.

A documentary, entitled “The Heart of a Murderer,” which depicts the murder and subsequent repentance of Singh, won an award at the World Interfaith Harmony Film Festival in 2013.

Pope Francis’ decree opens the way for her beatification.

Also included in the decree was the recognition of the heroic virtues of Servant of God Daniela Zanetta, a young woman from Maggiora, Italy who died at the age of 23 years from a serious genetic skin disease known as Epidermolysis bullosa dystrophica which makes the skin thin and fragile.

Children born with the disease are referred to as “butterfly children” because of the fragility of their skin which is prone to chronic internal and external scarring. Affected individuals are often severely malnourished due to trauma to their esophagus and require feeding tubes. Open wounds on the skin heal very slowly, or not at all, which results in extensive scarring which is particularly susceptible to infection. Most people born with the condition die before the age of 30.

Chiara Lubich, founder of the Focolare Movement, referred to her as Danielina, and enjoyed a years-long friendship with the girl with whom she regularly corresponded. This correspondence revealed a girl who was bursting with love of God and neighbor and who was always “happy to be here, to live, to fight.” She thanked God for everything, including the skin disease which she described as “a seal stamped on my flesh since my first cry.” The secret to her happiness was her acceptance of the cross.

“ . . . Maybe I look like a monster but I’m not!" Daniela wrote. "It’s not easy to spend 22 years on the Cross but I believe in God and love him immensely. I thank him for having given me life because every new day presents me with a new opportunity to love him and serve him. It’s not madness that makes me consider suffering as a precious gift from God, it’s concrete experience, lived out and often soaked with tears: I am sure that everything is a fruit of Divine Will and Love. (…) Every day that dawns is a gift from God and if this life is marked in a particular way by pain it’s a double gift because pain makes us grow, generates a deep dialogue with God, helps us expiate for many sins and stops foolish people’s nonsense. (…) Life is Beautiful!!”

Even her doctors were amazed. “The long hours dedicated to the thousand and one difficulties, inconceivable to us healthy people, require a precise and determined will to live”, comments Dr. Cavagnino, one of her doctors, “How did she have this? She was bursting with love for others (…) her eyes, which were red because of the illness, were full of joy and they saw beyond the hospital walls, her pain was a gift to others.”

She died on April 14, 1986. The pope's decree recognizes the heroic virtue of this extraordinary young woman whose cause for canonization can now proceed.

The same decree also recognized the heroic virtue of Servant of God Daniele da Samarate (né Felice Rossini), professed priest of the Order of Friars Minor Capuchin; and Servant of God Macrina Raparelli (née Elena), founder of the Congregation of the Basilian Sisters.

Also recognized was the martyrdom of Servants of God José Fernández Sánchez and 32 companions, priests and coadjutor brothers of the Congregation of the Mission, alongside six laypeople of the Association of the Miraculous Medal of Our Lady, who were killed in hatred of the faith during the Spanish Civil War.

A second miracle was recognized and attributed to the intercession of Blessed Angelo da Acri (né Luca Antonio Falcone), professed priest of the Order of Friars Minor Capuchin.

The Holy Father approved the favorable votes of the Ordinary Session of Cardinals and Bishops, member of the Congregation, regarding the canonization of Blessed André de Soveral, and Ambrósio Francisco Ferro, diocesan priests, and Mateus Moreira, layperson, alongside 27 companions, martyrs, killed in hatred of the faith in Brazil in 1645; and Cristóbal, Antonio and Juan, adolescent martyrs, killed in hatred of the faith in Mexico in 1529.

May God be blessed for the powerful and ever-expanding gift of the communion of saints!

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