Pope Francis has recently acknowledged a miracle attributed to Carmelite Sister Ana de Jesús, a spiritual disciple of St. Teresa of Ávila and a companion to St. John of the Cross, more than four centuries after her passing. In a decree signed on December 14, Pope granted approval for the beatification of Ana de Lobera y Torres (1545-1621), also known as Sister Ana de Jesús. She played a crucial role in expanding the Discalced Carmelites into France and Belgium.
Orphaned at the age of 9, Ana was introduced to St. Teresa in 1569 in Toledo. Impressed by Ana's virtues, Teresa invited her to join the Carmelites. The two formed a strong bond, even sharing a cell in the Salamanca monastery while Teresa was writing "The Book of the Foundations." Following Teresa's death, Ana continued her legacy by establishing new monasteries in France, including those in Paris, Pontoise, Dijon, and Brussels.
St. Thérèse of Lisieux, in her spiritual autobiography "Story of a Soul," recounted a dream where Ana de Jesús appeared, assuring her of an imminent journey to heaven. Sister Ana also played a role in St. John of the Cross's work, writing the opening commentary on his "Spiritual Canticle" while he was imprisoned in Toledo.
Pope Francis advanced Ana's beatification cause on the feast of St. John of the Cross, recognizing her significant contributions to the Carmelite order and her impact on the spiritual lives of others.
Additionally, Pope acknowledged a miracle attributed to Mexican priest Father Moisés Lira Serafín (1893-1950), whose intercession led to the healing of an unborn child with fetal hydrops in 2004.
In the same decree, Pope Francis also recognized the martyrdom of several individuals, including Xaverian missionary priests Father Luigi Carrara, Father Giovanni Didonè, and Father Vittorio Faccin, who were martyred during the Kwilu Rebellion in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 1964. Local diocesan priest Father Albert Joubert, born to a French father and an African mother, was also killed alongside them.
Pope approved the martyrdom of Ján Havlík, a Slovak seminarian who faced persecution under the communist government, enduring arrest and torture before being sentenced to forced labor in a uranium mine, where he continued a clandestine apostolate among prisoners until his death in 1965.
Father Giuseppe Rossi, an Italian diocesan priest killed by Fascist soldiers on February 26, 1945, also had his martyrdom recognized in the decree.
With these recognitions, Sister Ana of Jesus, Father Moisés Lira Serafín, Father Luigi Carrara, Father Giovanni Didonè, Father Vittorio Faccin, Father Albert Joubert, Father Giuseppe Rossi, and Ján Havlík are one step closer to canonization as saints, pending the verification of a miracle attributed to their intercession.
Furthermore, three 20th-century Catholics were declared Venerable in the same decree. Pope Francis acknowledged the heroic virtue of Ernesto Guglielmo Cofiño Ubico from Guatemala, a father of five (1899–1991), as well as Father Alberto Beretta (1916–2001), an Italian Capuchin priest and physician who served as a missionary in Brazil for 33 years, and Francesca Lancellotti (1917–2008), an Italian laywoman known for her spiritual gifts.