PRESIDENT Mary McAleese will be greeted by Pope Benedict XVI after the Pontiff canonises Blessed Charles of Mount Argus in St Peter's Square, Rome, tomorrow.The President and the Archbishop of Dublin, Dr Diarmuid Martin, will lead a large delegation of pilgrims from Ireland at the ceremony.
This will see the formal raising to sainthood of the 19th century Dutch priest, whose grave in the Passionist monastery of Mount Argus in Dublin remains a popular place of pilgrimage.
Fr Charles was beatified by the late Pope John Paul II in October 1988 after a reported cure of a Dutch woman, Octavia Spaetgens Verheggen, was attributed to his intercession.
A second miracle, in which a Dutchman, Dolf Dormans, was cured of an intestinal problem, has been accepted as authentic by the Vatican.
Born John Andrew Houben in 1821 at Munstergeleen in Holland, Blessed Charles was ordained in 1850, and came into contact in England with Irish immigrants fleeing the Famine.
In July 1857 he joined the new monastery of Mount Argus, where he established a nationwide reputation for healing the sick. His funeral in 1892 was said to be larger than that of nationalist leader Charles Stewart Parnell.
Pilgrimage
On behalf of the Passionist Order in Ireland, Fr Brian D'Arcy said Blessed Charles should be described as "the saint for all emigrants".
The President is in Rome with husband Dr Martin McAleese and Education Minister Mary Hanafin.
Mrs McAleese will also visit St Isidore's College, built by Irish Franciscans, and will address the Pontifical Irish College in Rome.
She will attend a special Mass to mark the inauguration of the chapel at Villa Spada, the Irish Embassy to the Holy See.
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