Mother Elisa Martinez (1908-1991), the foundress of the Congregation of the Daughters of St. Mary of Leuca, was beatified outside the Shrine of Santa Maria di Leuca, in the Salento region of Italy, on June 25.
Cardinal Marcello Semeraro, prefect of the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, presided at the Mass of beatification.
At the conclusion of his June 28 general audience, Pope Francis paid tribute to the new blessed and cited one of her statements: “expand the heart to embrace all creatures scattered in every corner of the Earth, especially the most needy and marginalized.”