A shepherd boy, a woman called Luminosa and four more generous hearts: meet the new Venerables

There is a boy tending sheep who one day receives Padre Pio’s blessing. There is a young Argentine woman who loses her mother as a child and grows up to be known as Luminosa. There are men who cross oceans and a priest who opens his doors to people needing care.

Their paths could hardly be further apart, yet they meet in the same announcement: on 24 October 2026, Pope Leo XIV authorised the recognition of the heroic virtues of six Servants of God. The Church now calls them Venerable. Behind that word are names, choices and people worth getting to know.

Brother Daniele: a smile that reached Foggia’s wounded

Michele Natale was born in San Giovanni Rotondo in 1919 and worked as a shepherd boy. At fourteen, his religious vocation began to take shape. On 4 June 1933 he met Padre Pio, whose blessing accompanied the beginning of his journey with the Capuchins.

He took the name Brother Daniele and chose to remain a lay brother. His life included the everyday tasks of the friary. During the bombing of Foggia in 1943 he helped the wounded and buried the dead. Here faith took a form anyone can understand: being there when others need you.

Illness and hospital stays followed over the years. His spiritual bond with Padre Pio remained central and, after the saint’s death, Brother Daniele devoted himself to prayer groups. He died on 6 July 1994. His story leaves a question close to home: how much good can come through a willingness to help, renewed day after day?

Her name was Margarita. Everyone called her Luminosa

Margarita Bavosi was born in Buenos Aires in 1941. She lost her mother at ten, later graduated in history and found her path of consecration to God in the Focolare Movement. Her nickname, Luminosa, reflected her spontaneous, optimistic character.

With Chiara Lubich’s charism of unity at heart, she took on responsibilities in the movement in Argentina, Spain and Uruguay. Her spirituality was lived through relationships: Gospel love in the present encounter, with the people right in front of her.

In 1981 the symptoms of a serious lung disease appeared. Margarita died in 1985, aged 43. It touches us that her name still evokes light: knowing sorrow and bringing joy can belong to the same life.

From the neighbourhood to the Andes: four more names to remember

There are also Oreste Marengo, a Salesian missionary bishop in India, and Friedrich Kaiser Depel, who worked in Peru and founded the Missionary Sisters of Jesus, Word and Victim. Their vocations became journeys, encounters and service to communities far from their birthplaces.

Domenico Pogliani, a Milanese priest and founder of the Sacra Famiglia Institute, devoted his ministry to welcoming people needing assistance. Alessandro Vitetti, a priest from Calabria, dedicated his life to ministry and spiritual accompaniment; illness marked his final years severely.

What does Venerable actually mean?

The recognition concerns how they lived the Christian virtues. Being declared Venerable is one stage in a process: it is neither beatification nor canonisation. In these causes based on virtues, beatification ordinarily also requires recognition of a miracle attributed to the candidate’s intercession.

For us, something simple and demanding remains. The next person we can make room for may already be part of our day: a neighbour to listen to, someone to accompany, a service to give time to. These six stories invite us to take that small, possible act of goodness seriously.