Mass for the beatification of the priest Camille Costa de Beauregard, committed to education and first blessed proclaimed during the pontificate of Leo XIV, was celebrated on Saturday, May 17, in the presence of many faithful from Savoy and other regions of France.
In his homily, the Archbishop of Chambéry, Msgr. Thibault Verny, explained that Camille Costa de Beauregard was not "an alien", but that he "let himself be loved by Jesus in order to, in turn, love with the same charity". More than 4,000 faithful participated in his beatification, among them more than 300 members of his family, including grandnieces and grandnephews, in a ceremony presided over by the Apostolic Nuncio to France, Monsignor Celestino Migliore.
In 1867, at least 135 people lost their lives in a few months in the city because of a cholera epidemic. Faced with this tragedy, the young diocesan priest decided to open an orphanage to take in the children who had been left alone: Le Bocage.
St. Camille: "Great pastoral charity".
After the Mass of initiation of his Petrine Ministry, Pope Leo XIV referred to the Communion of Saints. And he revealed before praying the Regina Caeli and giving the Blessing, that "during the Mass I strongly felt the spiritual presence of Pope Francis, who accompanies us from heaven".
He then added: "In this dimension of communion of saints, I recall that yesterday in Chambéry, France, the priest Camille Costa de Beauregard was beatified, who lived between the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century, witness of great pastoral charity".
St. Mary Bernarda Bütler: Evangelizer in South America
In addition to other saints and blessed, some Popes, the liturgy celebrates on May 19 the nun saint Maria Bernarda BütlerBorn in 1848 in Switzerland, in a humble peasant family. In 1867 she entered the Franciscan monastery of Mary Help of Christians in Altstätten (Switzerland).
The bishop of Portoviejo (Ecuador) invited them to mission in his diocese, and in 1888 Maria Bernarda and six companions embarked for America. In 1895, in the face of religious persecution in Ecuador, they left for Colombia and settled in Cartagena de Indias. What at first was a filial foundation became the new congregation of the Franciscan Missionary Sisters of Mary Help of Christians. She was canonized by Benedict XVI in 2008.
