Pope Benedict XVI approved Saturday the elevation to sainthood of four candidates including women from India, Ecuador and Switzerland and an Italian priest who founded a missionary order.The four will be formally listed as Roman Catholic saints on 12 October, the Vatican said announcing the decision made by Benedict in a morning meeting with a group of cardinals.
Indian nun Anna Muttathupandathu - known as Alfonsa of the Immaculate Conception - who belonged to the Congregation of Poor Clares of the Third Order of St Francis and who died in 1946, is set to become India's first female Roman Catholic saint.
Another "blessed" destined for sainthood is Narcisa de Jesus Martillo Moran, an Ecuadorean-born laywoman who died in Peru in 1869.
She will be joined by Swiss nun Maria Bernarda Buetler who founded the Congregation of the Missionary Franciscan Sisters of Mary Help of Christians and who died in Colombia in 1924.
Completing the list of new saints was Naples-born priest Gaetano Errico, the founder of the Congregation of the Missionaries of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary who died in 1860.
Last week the Vatican issued a document tightening procedures for creating saints, including instructing bishops to carefully scrutinise the "holiness" or "martyrdom" of candidates.
It also specified how alleged miracles performed by candidates must be examined and reiterated that a cause for sainthood cannot be presented sooner than five years after the death of a candidate.
During the pontificate of the late John Paul II, some 1,340 people were beatified - the first step towards sainthood - while nearly 500 were canonized.
This tally is greater than all previous popes combined since the current procedures on sainthood were introduced in 1588.
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