Pope canonizes Argentina's 'gaucho priest' and 6 others

October 16, 2016 at 4:45 a.m. | Updated October 16, 2016 at 5:00 a.m.

by Associated Press

A woman holds up a portrait of Argentine priest Giuseppe Gabriele Del Rosario Brochero as from left, the tapestries of seven new saints, Giuseppe Gabriele Del Rosario Brochero, Ludovico Pavoni, Jose Sanchez Del Rio, Salomone Leclerc, Manuel Gonzalez Garcia, Alfonso Maria Fusco and Elisabetta Della Santissima Trinita' Catez, hang from the facade of St, Peter's Basilica prior to the start of a Canonization Mass celebrated by Pope Francis in St. Peter's Square, at the Vatican, Sunday, Oct. 16, 2016. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)
A woman holds up a portrait of Argentine priest Giuseppe Gabriele Del Rosario Brochero as from left, the tapestries of seven new saints, Giuseppe Gabriele Del Rosario Brochero, Ludovico Pavoni, Jose Sanchez Del Rio, Salomone Leclerc, Manuel Gonzalez Garcia, Alfonso Maria Fusco and Elisabetta Della Santissima Trinita' Catez, hang from the facade of St, Peter's Basilica prior to the start of a Canonization Mass celebrated by Pope Francis in St. Peter's Square, at the Vatican, Sunday, Oct. 16, 2016. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

VATICAN CITY (AP) - Pope Francis has canonized Argentina's "gaucho priest," the poncho-wearing, mate-sipping pastor who rode his mule Malacara to the far-flung Argentine peripheries to minister to the poor.

The pope canonized Jose Gabriel del Rosario Brochero on Sunday along with six others in one of the final big Masses of his Holy Year of Mercy.

Born in 1849 in the province of Cordoba, Brochero was one of the most famous Catholics in the Argentina of Francis' youth. He died in 1914 after living for years with leprosy that he was said to have contracted from one of his faithful.

Francis, history's first Argentine pope, moved Brochero closer to sainthood soon after being elected pope in 2013.

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