Vatican City, Mar 3, 2008 / 10:42 am
On Saturday, Benedict XVI declared that four people will be recognized as saints in a ceremony to be held on Sunday October 12. The blesseds who will be canonized are: Gaetano Errico, Maria Bernarda Butler (nee Verena), Alfonsa of the Immaculate Conception (nee Anna Muttathupandathu), and Narcisa de Jesus Martillo Moran.
Gaetano Errico was an Italian teacher, born in 1791, who showed immense dedication to his students. He not only educated his students but formed them spiritually with Christian doctrine and moral values.
He experienced a life-changing event in 1818 while praying at a retreat. St. Alphonsus Liguori appeared to him in a vision and told him that God wanted him to found a new religious congregation and to build a church in Secondigliano in honor of Our Lady of Sorrows.
Fr. Errico died in 1860 at the age of 69.