The Vatican has held a ceremony to name seven new saints including the first Native American to ever be beatified.
Led by Pope Benedict XVI, the special mass marks the start of a new drive by the Catholic church to deepen the spirituality of followers in a "Year Of Faith".
In order to qualify for sainthood a nominee must be recognised as responsible for a miracle. Seventeenth-century Native American Kateri Tekakwitha has been recognised as saving the life of a child who was suffering from a flesh-eating bacterium.
Other figures being beatified include a Spanish nun, a German preacher and a French Jesuit who was executed in Madagascar.