Today, Pope Leo XIV received Marcello Semeraro, Prefect of the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, and authorised him to promulgate a series of decrees concerning future beatifications and new declarations of heroic virtue.

The Holy Father approved decrees recognising the martyrdom of Fr Augusto Rafael Ramírez Monasterio, a priest of the Order of Friars Minor, and a miracle attributed to the intercession of Sr Maria Ignazia Isacchi, founder of the Congregation of the Ursulines of the Sacred Heart of Jesus of Asola. As a result, both will be proclaimed Blessed.

Fr Augusto Rafael Ramírez Monasterio
Fr Augusto Rafael Ramírez Monasterio was born in Guatemala City on 5 November 1937 into a large and devout Catholic family. Having discerned a religious vocation, he began his Franciscan novitiate in Jumilla, Spain, and after completing studies in philosophy and theology was ordained a priest on 18 June 1967.

In 1978 he became guardian and parish priest of San Francisco el Grande in Antigua, Guatemala, where he dedicated himself to parish life and to the poor and defenceless during the country’s civil war. Arrested on 2 June 1983, he was tortured and later released, but remained under surveillance and received repeated death threats. On 7 November 1983 he was seized again by soldiers and killed during a transfer to the outskirts of the city. The decree recognises that he was killed out of hatred for the faith.

Sr Maria Ignazia Isacchi
Maria Ignazia Isacchi, born Angela Caterina and known as Ancilla, was born on 8 May 1857 in Stezzano, in the Italian province of Bergamo. She entered the Ursuline Sisters of Somasca just after the age of twenty and was later elected Superior General.

She transferred the motherhouse to Asola and continued to lead the institute there until 1924, when poor health forced her resignation. She was nevertheless named Superior General for life ad honorem. She died on 19 August 1934 in Seriate and was declared Venerable in 2022.

The miracle attributed to her intercession concerns the healing in 1950 of Sister Maria Assunta Zappella, who suffered from severe abdominal pain caused by enterocolitis of probable tubercular origin. At the end of a novena, the sister experienced a sudden improvement. Medical examinations the following day showed a regression of the illness, and doctors noted an unexpected and complete recovery within a short time.