POPE Benedict XVI today authorised two new sainthoods and 327 beatifications, the Vatican said.The Pope recognised a new miracle by an Indian nun, Anna Muttathupandathu, who had previously been beatified in 1986 by Pope John Paul II.
The woman, who went by the name Alfonsa dell'Immacolata Concezione, will now be canonised.
A new miracle has also been recorded for Narcisa De Jesus Martillo Moran, an Ecuadoran woman beatified in 1992.
Those authorised for beatification today include Italian priest Antonio Rosmini; Endrina Stenmanns of Germany; Maria Anna Donati of Italy; and Maria Merkert, who was born in Silesia, which lies primarily in modern-day Poland.
Another 323 have been recognised as martyrs or as having heroic vitrues and will be beatified, including 127 people killed in 1936 during the Spanish civil war.
There were 188 religious and nonreligious members of the Society of Jesus killed in Japan between 1603 and 1639 eligible for beatification, as well.
The list of those gaining beatification also includes Francesco Jagerstatter, an Austrian Catholic who refused to enrol in Hitler's army and who became a symbol of Austrian resistance against the Nazis.
Beatification, officially the Catholic church's recognition that a dead person has entered Heaven and can intercede on behalf of those who pray in their name, is the first step towards declaring sainthood.
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