Visiting pope to canonize first Brazilian saint

SAO PAULO, Feb 24 (Reuters) Pope Benedict will canonize the first Brazilian-born saint during his first visit to the world's largest Roman Catholic country in May, Brazil's Catholic Church said.

People who have benefited from healing miracles attributed to Franciscan Friar Galvao are expected to take part in the ceremony on May 11 in Brazil's biggest city, Sao Paulo, and receive communion from the pope, said the Rev. Juarez de Castro, a spokesman for the Sao Paulo Archdiocese.

Friar Galvao lived between 1739 and 1822 and was the founder of the Monastery of the Light -- now a UN world heritage site. He was beatified by the late Pope John Paul II in 1998.

Canonizations normally occur in the Vatican.

The Brazilian National Bishops' Conference hailed Vatican's decision which it received earlier yesterday.

It said in a statement that it ''thanks Pope Benedict for this decision and also invites all people to rejoice the canonization of the first saint born in Brazil.'' ''The canonization ceremony is very simple. At the beginning of the mass someone chosen by the pope, normally a cardinal, would read a canonization decree and immediately afterwards a big picture of the saint is unfolded,'' de Castro said.

Pope Benedict is scheduled to arrive in Brazil on May 9 and meet President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva the following day.

The church said some 1.5 million people are expected to attend his mass at the Campo de Marte air field in Sao Paulo on May 11, where the canonization will occur.

On May 13, Pope Benedict will hold a mass in Aparecida do Norte, the largest shrine dedicated to Virgin Mary in the world, and will open the Latin American Episcopal Conference.

Beatification, for which one miracle has to be recognized by the Vatican, is the penultimate step before sainthood in the Roman Catholic Church. In December, the Holy See recognized Friar Galvao's second miracle, opening the way for his canonization.

The first miracle was in 1990, when a 4-year-old boy considered to be incurable by doctors was healed after prayer to Friar Galvao.

In the second, both mother and child were saved in a high-risk birth.

Pope Benedict's visit will be the fourth by a pontiff to Brazil, where more than 70 percent of the population of around 186 million describe themselves as Catholics.

REUTERS SSC KN0838