POPE John Paul II will chair a meeting of cardinals next week to proclaim five more saints, taking the total during his pontificate to 487, the Vatican said today.
The consistory on February 24 comes two weeks after the pope was released from hospital at the end of a 10-day stay following breathing difficulties.
The five new saints include two Poles, Jozef Bilczewski (1860-1923), a bishop in John Paul's native country, and Zygmunt Gorazdowski (1845-1920), a priest who founded the order of the sisters of Saint Joseph, Italian Gaetano Catanoso (1879-1963), who founded the order of the sisters of Saint Veronica, Chilean Jesuit Alberto Hurtado Cruchaga (1901-1952), and a Cypriot Franciscan friar, Felice da Nicosia (1715-1785).
The pope has declared 1,338 beatifications, the first step towards sainthood, since he took office in October 1978.
The number of saints proclaimed and the beatifications are each record's for a Roman Catholic pontificate.