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(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis on Monday received in private audience Cardinal Angelo Amato, S.D.B., Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints. In the course of the Audience, the Supreme Pontiff authorized the Congregation to promulgate decrees regarding:

• the miracle, attributed to the intercession of Blessed Ludovico Pavoni, Priest, Founder of the Congregation of the Sons of Mary Immaculate; born 11 November 1784, died 1 April 1849;

• the miracle, attributed to the intercession of Blessed Solomon Leclercq (né Guillaume-Nicolas-Louis Leclerq), of the Brothers of the Christian Schools, Martyr; born 15 November 1745, died 2 September 1792;

• the heroic virtue of the Servant of God Rafaél Manuel Almansa Riaño, Diocesan Priest, formerly Professed Priest of the Order of Friars Minor; born 2 August 1840, died 28 June 1927.

The recognition of miracles for Ludovico Pavoni and Solomon Leclercq clears the way for the canonization of the two blesseds.

Father Ludovico Pavoni founded the Congregation of the Sons of Mary Immaculate (the “Pavoniani”) dedicated to the human and Christian education of children, especially needy boys, with the goal of teaching them useful professions.

A member of the Brothers of the Christian Schools, Father Solomon Leclercq exercised his ministry in France in the late 19^th century. Father Leclercq went into hiding when religious orders were outlawed during the French Revolution. He was martyred, along with nearly 200 hundred others, during the September Massacres of 1792.

Rafaél Manuel Almansa Riaño ministered in Colombia in the late 19th and early 20th century. 

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