Sprightly Pope Announces Six More Beatifications

Pope John Paul II demonstrated new-found vigour yesterday as he announced six beatifications in four different languages and then braved wind and rain to kiss several children as he toured St Peter's Square in his open-topped "Popemobile".

The relatively bouncy performance came after the Pope, who is almost 84 and suffers from Parkinson's disease and severe arthritis, abandoned a public address at an Easter weekend ceremony.

The six beatifications further enhanced this pontiff's reputation for running a "saint factory", and brought the number of people he has put on the path to sainthood in the last 25 years to 1,330 - more than all the popes of the last five centuries combined.

Evidence of a miracle is required for beatification and a second miracle is needed to qualify as a saint. Under John Paul II, 476 have officially reached sainthood.

The newly beatified comprise a priest, four nuns and a paralysed lay woman, all described by the Pope as "eloquent examples of how the Lord transforms the existence of believers when we have faith in him".

Thousands of pilgrims clapped as portraits of the six were unrolled on St Peter's Basilica and the Pope read details of their lives and a homily to each in their native languages: Italian, Polish, Spanish and Portuguese.

His voice sounded strong and clear, and he greeted several pilgrims personally from the Popemobile after the ceremony, which lasted almost three hours.

The only man beatified was a Pole, August Czartoryski, a 19th century prince who became a Salesian priest.

The nuns included Laura Montoya of Colombia, who founded the Congregation of the Missionary Sisters of the Immaculate Mary; and María Guadalupe García Zavala of Mexico, co-founder of the Congregation of the Servants of St Margaret Mary and the Poor, who died in 1963.

Nemesia Valle (1847-1916) of Italy, a nun of the Congregation of the Sisters of Charity of Saint Giovanna Antida Thouret, was also beatified, along with Eusebia Palomino Yenes of Spain, a nun of the Institute of the Daughters of Mary, Help of Christians, who died in 1935.

The lay Portuguese woman, Alexandrina María da Costa, who worked with her local Salesian community, is said to have spent 13 years eating only the bread and wine of Communion until her death in 1955.

Analysts explain the Pope's propensity for saint-making as part of a campaign to give Catholics inspiring and often homegrown role models.