Who is being beatified in 2026?
In 2026, there are already five confirmed beatification ceremonies, with seven more considered imminent.
Since the turn of the millennium, there has been an average of 11 beatification ceremonies a year in the Catholic Church.
The average number of blesseds varies wildly each year, as a single beatification ceremony can produce anything from one new blessed to hundreds. Pope Benedict XVI, for example, beatified 498 Spanish Civil War martyrs in 2007.
There were 13 beatification ceremonies in 2025: one under Pope Francis and 12 under his successor Pope Leo XIV. It is too early to say whether there will be more or fewer beatifications under the U.S.-born pope. Most likely, they will remain at roughly the same level, perhaps with an uptick in the number of U.S. blesseds.
In 2026, there are already five confirmed beatification ceremonies, with a further seven considered imminent.
Confirmed beatifications
The first ceremony of 2026 took place last Saturday. Cardinal Marcello Semeraro, the prefect of the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, presided at the Feb. 7 beatification of the 19th-century Spanish priest Salvador Valera Parra.
Valera has been dubbed “the Spanish Curé d’Ars” because he was a less than stellar student who nevertheless had a profound impact on his parishioners through his dedication to pastoral work, especially in the confessional.
The next beatifications are scheduled to take place June 6. Semeraro will preside at the beatification of Jan Świerc and 8 Companions in Kraków, Poland. The nine members of the Salesian order were killed at the Nazi concentration camps of Auschwitz and Dachau in 1941 and 1942.
Also on June 6, Cardinal Michael Czerny, the prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, will beatify the Czech priests Jan Bula and Václav Drbol, who were executed under the country’s communist regime in the early 1950s.
A month later, Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, pro-prefect of the Dicastery for Evangelization’s Section for the First Evangelization and New Particular Churches, will preside at the beatification of the Vietnamese priest Francis Xavier Truong Buu Diep. Diep, an industrious figure who founded parishes in Cambodia and Vietnam, was killed by deserters from the Japanese military in 1946.
The fifth confirmed beatification will take place Sept. 27 in Bologna, Italy. Semeraro will beatify the priests Elia Comini, Ubaldo Marchioni, and Nicola Capelli, who were executed by the Nazis in 1944.
Anticipated beatifications
Several other causes have reached the beatification stage. But they are not yet listed on the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints’ beatifications page, with a confirmed date and place.
On Jan. 27, 2025, Pope Francis recognized the martyrdom of Pedro de Corpa and 4 Companions, commonly known as the Georgia Martyrs. The Franciscan friars were killed in odium fidei (in hatred of the faith) in 1597, in the modern-day U.S. state of Georgia. Some sources indicate they could be beatified in October.
In one of his last official acts, on April 14, 2025, Pope Francis recognized the martyrdom of the Italian priest Nazareno Lanciotti. Lanciotti, a missionary to Brazil, was killed in the State of Mato Grosso in 2001. His beatification will likely take place in Brazil.
On Dec. 18, 2025, Pope Leo XIV recognized a miracle attributed to the intercession of the 20th-century Argentine businessman Enrique Ernesto Shaw, paving the way for his beatification, likely in Buenos Aires.
On the same day, Leo XIV also recognized the martyrdom of the seminarian Ignacio Aláez Vaquero and 10 Companions, who were killed in odium fidei in the province of Madrid during the Spanish Civil War.
On Jan. 22, 2026, Pope Leo recognized a miracle attributed to the intercession of Angela Caterina Isacchi, the Italian founder of the Congregation of the Ursulines of the Sacred Heart of Jesus of Asola, noted for its pastoral and educational work.
On the same day, the pope recognized the 20th-century Franciscan priest Augusto Rafael Ramírez Monasterio as a martyr. “Fray Augusto” was tortured by the Guatemalan military, reportedly for refusing to break the confessional seal, and killed on the outskirts of Guatemala City in 1983.
Finally, Peoria’s Bishop Louis Tylka announced on Feb. 9, 2026, that the Vatican had approved the beatification of the pioneering televangelist Archbishop Fulton Sheen. Sheen’s beatification Mass is expected to take place in late September or early October.