Italian Doctor Who Worked Among Poor Proclaimed a Saint
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VATICAN CITY — An Italian doctor who devoted his skills to healing the poor was declared a saint by Pope John Paul II on Sunday at a ceremony in St. Peter’s Square.
Dr. Giuseppe Moscati, who practiced and taught in Naples and died at age 46 in 1927, is the first 20th-Century physician to be canonized in the Roman Catholic Church.
The square was packed with pilgrims for the ceremony, which was timed to coincide with a monthlong synod of bishops to discuss the role in the church of lay Catholics.
“His is an example not only to admire but also to imitate, above all among health workers, including those who do not share his faith,” the Pope said of Moscati.
Moscati, a chief physician at the Naples Hospital for the Incurable, refused payment from poor patients.
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