Pope canonises Blessed Charles

CELEBRATIONS welcoming Ireland’s newest Catholic saint continue in Rome today with a special mass for pilgrims who attended the canonisation.

Passionist priest Blessed Charles of Mount Argus, who died in Dublin in 1893, was formally declared Saint Charles by Pope Benedict XVI yesterday in recognition of his dedication to the sick, the dying and the bereft.

President Mary McAleese joined around 600 Irish pilgrims led by Dublin’s Archbishop Diarmuid Martin at the two-hour long service in St Peter’s Square.