Francis Has Broken All Records

Francis created more saints than all popes taken together since Sixtus X instituted the Congregation of Rites in 1588, writes TrueNumbers.it (January 2).

This Congregation produced until Pius IX (+1878) only 64 saints. Then, the inflation started: Pius IX (52 saints), Leo XIII (18), Pius XI (34), Pius XII (33), John XXIII (10).

The great sell-out started with John Paul II (482) who performed two mass-canonisations: 117 Vietnam martyrs in 1988 and the Chinese Augustin Zhao Rong and his 119 companions in 2000.

Benedict XVI created 44 saints, Francis, so far, 898. In 2013, he mass-canonised 800 Martyrs of Otranto, killed by the Turks in 1480.

So far, the popes proclaimed 1726 saints. The 2004 Martyrologium Romanum lists 13.539 saints and blessed, most of them were not proclaimed by popes.

Picture: © Mazur, CC BY-NC-SA, #newsMuphkctcxn