[GLOBAL ECONOMIC TIMES]  This Sunday, Pope Francis will elevate 14 figures of Catholicism to the category of "saints", among whom are 11 martyrs murdered in Syria in the 19th century, a reflection of the persecution of Christians under the Ottoman Empire.

The canonization ceremony will take place in St. Peter's Square in the presence of thousands of faithful from all over the world and official representatives of the countries involved.

Canonization – the final stage on the path to “holiness” in the Catholic Church – requires three conditions: having been dead for at least five years, having led an exemplary Christian life and having performed at least two miracles.

Among the new “saints” are the 11 “martyrs of Damascus”, murdered in July 1860 in the Syrian capital during Ottoman rule by a commando of Muslim Druze in a monastery in a Christian neighborhood.

According to Vatican News, the official media of the Vatican, “his martyrdom is part of a context of persecutions organized by Druze Muslims in Lebanon and Syria, during which thousands of Christians lost their lives.”

These martyrs, eight of them Franciscans and three laymen of the Maronite rite - the Massabki brothers - were beatified in 1926 by Pope Pius XI.

The other canonized are three founders of religious communities: the Italian missionary Giuseppe Allamano (1851-1926), the Italian nun Elena Guerra (1835-1914) and the Canadian Marie-Léonie Paradis (1840-1912), founder of a congregation dedicated to Catholic education.

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Pope Francis announced in May the canonization of Carlos Acutis, a very pious Italian teenager and internet fan whose death from fulminant leukemia in 2006 shocked the country.

The date of this ceremony has not been defined, but it could occur in 2025, the year of the “Jubilee” in Rome, where more than 30 million pilgrims are expected.

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