22 Oct 2012

Seven new saints named

6:02 am on 22 October 2012

Pope Benedict has named seven new saints, including the first native American to be canonised.

Kateri Tekakwithalived in the 17th century, in what is now Canada. She was born in 1656 and died at the age of 24.

Kateri, who is also known as "Lily of the Mohawks," was canonised at a ceremony in St Peter's Basilica.

The BBC reports the other new saints include a nun who tended a Hawaiian leper colony, Mother Marianne Of Molokai; a German lay preacher who died in 1925; an Italian priest who helped young people during the industrial revolution in the late 19th Century; a French missionary killed in Madagascar and a Spanish nun who campaigned for women's rights.