5 Modern-Era Bishops Who Were Saints

CV NEWS FEED // The Church has been blessed by the witness of countless bishops who faithfully lived out their duty as shepherds of Christ’s flock and now are honored as saints.

Here are several saintly bishops from the modern era who are models of Christ-like service. 

St. Oscar Romero (1917 – 1980)

St. Oscar Romero was born in El Salvador, where he served most of his life in ministry before his martyrdom in 1980. 

While his father planned for him to be a carpenter, Oscar received the Lord’s call at age 14 and entered seminary soon after. After studying in Rome for several years, Oscar was ordained a priest and returned to El Salvador where he served the poor and imprisoned.

After being appointed auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of San Salvador in 1970, political violence began to surge in the nation. Bishop Romero did not hesitate to call out the militarized government’s human rights violations and senseless killing of the poor. Romero was elevated to the archbishopric in 1978, and soon after his friend Fr. Rutilio Grande was assassinated. Romero openly condemned the violence from the pulpit and urged the government to investigate, but to no avail. 

Archbishop Romero broadcasted his sermons each Sunday by radio, asking for justice and peace in God’s name. The night before his murder, Romero had said on the radio:

No soldier is obliged to obey an order counter to the law of God. No one has to comply with an immoral law. It is the time now that you recover your conscience and obey its dictates rather than the command of sin.

The following morning, Archbishop Romero was shot while offering Mass. He was canonized by Pope Francis in 2018. 

St. John Neumann (1811 – 1860)

St. John Neumann was a Bohemian immigrant who eventually became the fourth bishop of Philadelphia and founded the first Catholic diocesan school system in the United States.

John was born in what is now the Czech Republic, and after entering seminary as a young man, he came to the United States to serve other European immigrants who were struggling to adjust to their new country. He was ordained a priest by the bishop of New York in 1836, and soon entered the Redemptorist order. Fr. Neumann focused his efforts on ministering to German immigrants in Baltimore and then Pittsburgh, often traveling on foot up to 20 miles.

Fr. Neumann was appointed bishop of Philadelphia at the age of 41 and eventually popularized the old practice of the 40 Hours Devotion in America, beginning in his own diocese. Bishop Neumann was humble and hardworking. He died of a heart attack on the streets of Philadelphia at only 48 years old. Pope Paul IV canonized him in 1977 as the first American male to be named a saint.

St. Rafael Guizar Valencia (1878–1938)

St. Rafael Guizar Valencia was a Mexican bishop who staunchly defended the faith during a time of persecution. 

Rafael was born in Michoacan, Mexico and both he and his younger brother Antonio aspired to the priesthood as teenagers. Rafael was ordained at age 23 and was soon made the spiritual director of the seminary in Zamora. He also eventually became a member of the Knights of Columbus.

When the Mexican Revolution broke out in 1910, Catholics were harshly persecuted and Fr. Rafael became a government target for his outspoken criticism of its corruption. This required him to administer the sacraments in secret by disguising himself variously as a junk dealer, a street vendor, and a musician. After a government order for him to be shot on sight if discovered, Fr. Rafael was forced to flee to the United States, and from there he went to Guatemala and Cuba to establish missions. 

After the revolution ended, Fr. Rafael was appointed bishop of Veracruz and returned to Mexico to serve. However, the government remained anti-Catholic and forced the closure of a seminary that Bishop Rafael had just renovated, although the new bishop continued to operate it secretly for the next 15 years. He was forced to flee once again for a few years before finally being able to serve the rest of his life in his homeland. He died of natural causes in Mexico and was canonized by Pope Benedict XVI in 2006.

St. Joseph Sebastian Pelczar (1842 – 1924)

St. Joseph Sebastian Pelczar was a Polish bishop who founded the religious order the Sister Servants of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus.

Born in Korczyna, Poland, Joseph wrote in his diary as a boy, “Earthly ideals are fading away. I see the ideal of life in sacrifice, and the ideal of sacrifice in priesthood.” The young man was later ordained a priest in 1864. After earning doctorates in theology and canon law in Rome, Fr. Pelczar returned to Poland, where he eventually became a professor and theology dean of the Jagiellonian University in Krakow. 

Though a prolific writer and highly respected academic, Fr. Pelczar devoted much of his time to serving in the St. Vincent de Paul Society and the Society for the Education of the People. He was named auxiliary bishop of the Diocese of Przemysl in 1899, and he urged his priests to be vigilant in caring for the evangelization and social needs of their flock. He founded libraries, soup kitchens, and homeless shelters, and arranged tuition assistance for poor seminarians. Bishop Pelczar also established the Sister Servants of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus to minister to struggling young girls in Krakow. 

Bishop Pelczar died of pneumonia in 1924 and was canonized by Pope John Paul II in 2003.

St. Luigi Versiglia  (1873 – 1930)

St. Luigi Versiglia was an Italian bishop and Salesian missionary who was martyred in China. 

Luigi was born in Pavia, Italy, and as a boy was repeatedly told he would become a priest since he served Mass so frequently. Young Luigi denied this, but after studying under St. (Don) John Bosco in Turin, he was inspired by the Salesian mission. He became a consecrated Salesian and was ordained a priest in 1895, determined to serve as a missionary. 

Fr. Versiglia led the first Salesian missionary expedition to China in 1906, which had been foretold in a prophecy by the now-late Don Bosco. Fr. Versiglia established various Catholic missions in China, beginning in Heungchow, along with orphanages and oratories. He was then consecrated as bishop of Shiuchow and continued to travel throughout China to visit his flock and build new missions and hospitals. 

In February 1930, Bishop Versiglia traveled on a pastoral mission to Linchow accompanied by  another student of Don Bosco’s, Fr. Callistus Caravario, and some young students. The travelers were stopped en route by a group of armed men who, after failing to get “protection” money from the missionaries, attempted to take the three female students with them. Bishop Versiglia and Fr. Caravario stood in between the attackers to shield the girls and both men were taken and shot dead. 

Bishop Versiglia was named a martyr and canonized along with Fr. Caravario in 2000 by Pope John Paul II.