Pope Leo XIV: The world is poorer without saints

Pope Leo XIV, in his first private audience since undergoing surgery on Oct. 13, said the history of the world is inseparable from the history of the saints.

“The history of the world without saints would be immeasurably poorer; that is, less human,” Leo said in his address .

The pontiff met on Wednesday with participants of the “Holiness in History” conference, held at the Patristic Institute Augustinianum center in Rome from Oct. 19–21. Organized by the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, the conference explored the role of historical research in determining whether to declare someone a saint.

Rigor in canonization causes In his remarks, Leo referenced Pope Pius XI, who established the dicastery’s historical section in 1930, and emphasized that recent causes for canonization must continue to be carefully evaluated against historical evidence of one’s holiness.

Pope Leo XIV delivers remarks during a private audience at the Apostolic Palace in the Vatican with participants in the “Holiness in History” conference on Oct. 21, 2026. | Credit: Vatican Media

“The treatment of ‘recent causes’ likewise cannot dispense with a serious and rigorous examination of all the…