SANCTITY: LIVING ORDINARY THINGS IN AN EXTRAORDINARY WAY

VATICAN CITY, NOV 26, 2001 (VIS) - This morning John Paul II received the pilgrims who participated in yesterday's canonization of Blesseds Giuseppe Marello, Paula Montal Fornes de San Jose de Calasanz, Leonie Francoise de Sales Aviat, and Maria Crescentia Hoss.

In his speech, the Pope recalled that only eight years have passed since the beatification of Giuseppe Marello, bishop, founder of the Congregation of the Oblates of St. Joseph. "A further miraculous sign - the healing of two children in Peru - permitted the earthly crowning of his journey of sanctity."

"In the concrete circumstances of her time, which was never easy," the Pope continued, referring to St. Paula Montal Fornes de San Jose de Calasanz, virgin, foundress of the Institute of the Daughters of Mary, religious of the Pious Schools, "she perceived the role of the woman in the family and society and dedicated herself to an ideal: the human and Christian education of the woman."

Addressing the professors and educators, Daughters of St. Leonie de Sales Aviat, virgin, foundress of the Congregation of the Sisters Oblates of St. Francis de Sales, the Holy Father exhorted them, through their work, to give to youth "the human and Christian values necessary for their maturation, through an integral formation and the witness of your life."

Maria Crescentia Hoss, virgin, nun of the Third Order of St. Francis, "already in her time, was a support for others, and advised them to have recourse to the Holy Spirit, from whom we and the Church have received and continue to receive important graces."

The Holy Father concluded by emphasizing that sanctity "does not consist in achieving exceptional undertakings, but in living ordinary things in an extraordinary way, that is to say, with all the love possible."

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