Pope Leo XIV Has Cancer: The World Prays to the Saint Who Was the Pope’s Enemy
On October 13th, the day Fatima remembers the Miracle of the Sun, Pope Leo XIV went into surgery at Rome’s Gemelli Hospital. That evening, the Holy See’s medical bulletin confirmed the diagnosis: lung cancer, an adenocarcinoma removed together with the lower lobe of his right lung. While some 100,000 pilgrims prayed for him at Fatima, Catholics around the world began calling on Saint Peregrine Laziosi, the patron saint of cancer patients.
Who was he? As a young man in Forlì, Italy, he was an enemy of the Pope, and he struck the Pope’s envoy, Saint Philip Benizi, across the face. That act of forgiveness changed his life. Years later, as a Servite friar, he developed a wound on his leg that would not heal, and the doctors decided to amputate. On the night before the operation he prayed before the crucifix and, according to the account, saw Jesus come down from the cross to touch him. By morning, the wound was healed.
Today, the Pope’s former enemy is the saint to whom the Church entrusts a sick Pope.
The National Shrine of Saint Peregrine is in Chicago, the city where Pope Leo was born and raised.
🙏 Join the prayer: write “Amen” in the comments, and if someone you love is fighting cancer, write their name. Together we will entrust them to Saint Peregrine, alongside Pope Leo.
⏱ CHAPTERS
00:00 The Pope’s surgery on the day of the Miracle of the Sun
00:54 Three days: from the Angelus to the Gemelli
02:09 October 13: the Day of the Sun and the prayer of Fatima
03:57 The patron saint of cancer patients
04:44 Forlì, 1284: the slap that changed everything
06:18 The night before the amputation
07:54 The Pope’s enemy who prays for the Pope
09:08 A prayer to Saint Peregrine for Pope Leo
SOURCES
– Holy See Press Office, medical bulletin of October 13, 2026 (reported by AP, ANSA and Avvenire)
– AP News: “Vatican says the pope has lung cancer and the lower lobe of his right lung was removed”
– Vatican News: Pope Leo’s Angelus, October 11, 2026
– Shrine of Fatima: “In Fatima, 100,000 pilgrims united in prayer for Pope Leo XIV”
– Diário de Leiria: October 12, 2026 candlelight vigil, about 130,000 pilgrims
– Avvenire: “The whole world embraces Leo XIV: the network praying for him”
– EWTN News: “Who is St. Peregrine, the ‘cancer saint’ Catholics are invoking for Pope Leo XIV?”
– Diocese of Forlì-Bertinoro: Saint Peregrine Laziosi
– Wikipedia: Peregrine Laziosi
FOOTAGE & IMAGES
Vatican Media, La Repubblica, LaPresse, Il Messaggero, askanews, AgenSIR, Shrine of Fatima / Altar do Mundo, Agencia Andina, WGN News, NM Video. Artworks and photos from Wikimedia Commons: Simone Cantarini, Cosimo Ulivelli, Perugino, Girolamo Romanino, Cosimo Rosselli, Giotto (Rimini Crucifix). Historical photographs of Fatima, 1917.
The fresco-style scenes from the life of Saint Peregrine are AI-generated reconstructions.
#PopeLeoXIV #SaintPeregrine #Fatima #PrayForThePope #Catholic
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