Francis hails Palestinian leader as 'angel of peace'

Sisters Mariam Bawardy and Marie Alphonsine Ghattas, who lived in what was 19th century Palestine, were among four nuns made saints today at a Mass in a sun-soaked St. Peter's Square.

President Abbas joined an estimated 2,000 pilgrims from the region, many of them waving Palestinian flags, for the canonisation of the first saints from the Holy Land since the early years of Christianity.

When he and Pope Francis met yesterday, the Pope described the Palestinian president as 'an angel of peace', and church officials are holding up Bawardy and Ghattas as a sign of hope and encouragement for Christians across the Middle East at a time when violent persecution and discrimination have driven many Christians from the region of Christ's birth. 

The two nuns were canonised along with two other nuns, Saints Jeanne Emilie de Villeneuve from France and Maria Cristina of the Immaculate Conception from Italy.

'Inspired by their example of mercy, charity and reconciliation, may the Christians of these lands look with hope to the future, following the path of solidarity and fraternal coexistence,' Pope Francis said of the women at the end of his Mass today.

Bawardy was a mystic born in 1843 in the village of Ibilin in what is now the Galilee region of northern Israel. She is said to have received the 'stigmata' - bleeding wounds like those that Jesus Christ suffered on the cross - and died at the age of 33 in the West Bank town of Bethlehem, where she had founded a Carmelite order monastery that still exists.

Ghattas, who was born in Jerusalem in 1847, opened girls' schools, fought female illiteracy, and co-founded the Congregation of the Sisters of the Rosary. The order today boasts dozens of centers all over the Middle East, from Egypt to Syria, that operate nursery schools, homes for the elderly, medical clinics and guest houses.

The canonisation of Ghattas and Baouardy was not directly connected with the Vatican's announcement of a new accord with the State of Palestine on Wednesday.

But the ceremony highlighted Pope Francis' drive to help embattled Christian communities in the Middle East.

In his homily, Francis praised Bawardy as having been 'a means of encounter and fellowship with the Muslim world,' and told the huge congregation that Ghattas 'shows us the importance of becoming responsible for one another, of living lives of service to one another'.

'Their luminous example challenges us in our lives as Christians,' he said.

(dailymail.co.uk)