Who is Inés Arango, the Colombian woman who could be beatified by Pope Leo XIV?

Colombian nun Inés Arango Velásquez, also known as María de las Nieves de Medellín, could be elevated to sainthood , after Pope Leo XIV signed the decree on the causes of saints on Thursday, May 22, the first step on the path to her beatification.

(Read: Pope Leo XIV signs decree for the beatification of Colombian Inés Arango ).

The Spaniard Alejandro Labaka Ugarte could also receive sainthood.

Both missionaries were violently murdered in 1987 in the Amazon rainforest of Ecuador, riddled with arrows and spears by indigenous people trying to protect the advance of oil companies.

Arango Velásquez, who was born in Medellín, was a professed nun of the Congregation of the Capuchin Tertiaries of the Holy Family .

In 1955 she received the religious habit and in 1977 she participated in her first mission with the Capuchin Tertiary Sisters of the Holy Family in Ecuador, where she came into contact with several indigenous communities and began working with Labaka.

(Here: Leo XIV's criticism of the economic paradigm: 'It exploits resources and marginalizes the poor' ).

In 1987, he traveled with him to contact the Tagaeri indigenous community in response to "the imminent danger looming" over this tribe due to the "threat of large oil companies."

"The next day, when they returned to pick them up by helicopter, their bodies were found pierced by arrows and spears," which shows, according to the Dicastery, that both made a "free and voluntary offering of their lives" that validates the first steps in a process that could lead to their eventual sainthood.

Path to beatification

The path to sainthood has several stages: the first is being declared a "Venerable Servant of God," a title given to a deceased person who is recognized as having "lived the virtues heroically" ; the second is being declared a Blessed; and the third is being declared a Saint.

Likewise, in 2017, Pope Francis introduced the "offer of life" as a new valid cause for the opening of a beatification process, which is based on having freely offered one's life for others until death.

(Here: Leo XIV calls for peace in Ukraine and Gaza: 'Never again war!' ).

For a venerable person to be beatified, a miracle must have occurred through his or her intercession, and for him or her to be canonized or made a saint, a second miracle must have occurred through his or her intercession, after being proclaimed blessed.

PORTFOLIOWith information from agencies