The first apostolic exhortation of Leo XIV, titled Dilexi te and published this October 9, places the poor at the center of the Gospel and offers as a model the lives of the saints who embodied Christian charity with radicalism. The Pope recalls that it is not a matter of an abstract ideal, but of a path proven by centuries of witnesses who made attention to the most needy the most authentic credential of faith.
In the text, the Pontiff repeatedly cites the Church Fathers and historical figures who marked service to the needy with their example. Saint Ambrose, Saint Augustine, Saint Cyprian, Saint John Chrysostom, and Saint Lawrence appear as references who ceaselessly reminded Christians that the goods of this world must be put at the service of all, especially the most vulnerable.
Saint Lawrence and the poor as the “treasure of the Church”
One of the most evocative examples gathered in the exhortation is that of Saint Lawrence, deacon and martyr of the third century, known for having pointed to the poor as the true treasure of the Church. Leo XIV takes up this episode to insist that charity is not an accessory act, but an essential part of Christian identity. The reference to the Roman martyr connects the Church’s social doctrine with a radical testimony of self-giving even to the shedding of blood.
Saint Teresa of Calcutta, voice of charity in the contemporary world
Among the more recent saints, Leo XIV grants a special place to Saint Teresa of Calcutta, from whom he quotes fragments of her speeches to recall that service to the poor is inseparable from the encounter with Christ. Mother Teresa insisted that the most terrible thing about poverty is not the lack of bread, but loneliness and the lack of love. The Pope takes up her words as an example of a deeply Christocentric spirituality, which sees in every suffering face the presence of Jesus.
Her testimony, the exhortation notes, was not that of a social strategy or an ideology, but that of a life given without reservation to the concrete, everyday, and silent service of the most abandoned.
New witnesses to the poor
Leo XIV also highlights the lives of other modern saints who expanded the horizon of Christian charity. Among them appears Saint Dulce of the Poor, known in Brazil as “the angel of Bahia,” who dedicated her life to the care of the sick and marginalized in the suburbs of Salvador. Her example shows how charity can transform contexts of social exclusion into spaces of dignity.
Another name cited is that of Saint Benedict Menni, founder along with the Hospital Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, dedicated to the care of the mentally ill and the poor sick in general. The exhortation recalls his self-giving as a sign of evangelical compassion in areas often forgotten even by public institutions.
The Pope also includes Saint Charles de Foucauld, an inspiring figure of the 20th century, whose testimony of life in the Algerian desert and his desire to be a “universal brother” become a reminder that service to the poor is linked to the search for universal fraternity in Christ.
Saints who made charity a life project
The exhortation recalls Saint Katharine Drexel, an American founder who dedicated her fortune and her life to the education and promotion of African American and indigenous communities, as an example of how charity transforms social justice into evangelizing action. Likewise, it mentions Sister Emmanuelle, a French-Belgian religious who worked in the poorest neighborhoods of Cairo and became a reference for service to those who lived among garbage and marginalization.
All these names, along with the Church Fathers and saints of the early centuries, show that the tradition of charity is not a late addition nor a modern sensitivity, but an uninterrupted line that runs through Christian history.