section_path: Papacy (2013–2025)/Canonizations, beatifications and doctors of the church
section_name: Canonizations, beatifications and doctors of the church
paragraph_text: Canonizations, beatifications and doctors of the church
  
  Francis presided over the first canonizations of his pontificate on 12 May 2013 in which he canonized the Martyrs of Otranto —Antonio Primaldo and his 812 companions who had been executed by the Ottomans in 1480 —as well as the religious sisters Laura of St. Catherine of Siena and María Guadalupe García Zavala. In this first canonization, Francis surpassed the record of Pope John Paul II in canonizing the most saints in a pontificate.
  
  Saints the Pope canonized include Louis Martin and Marie-Azélie Guérin (the first married couple to be named as saints together), Mother Teresa, and Óscar Romero. Francis canonized three of his predecessors: John XXIII, John Paul II and Paul VI. Francis also confirmed Pope John Paul I to be Venerable and Blessed.
  
  Francis declared two new Doctors of the Church: Saint Gregory of Narek in 2015, and Saint Irenaeus of Lyon in 2022.