Pope Leo XIV celebrated a Mass this Tuesday in Córdoba for the sanctification of the Argentine people, before the image of the Poor Christ that Father Brochero commissioned to be carved. On the memorial of Saint Leo the Great, the Pope recalled that all the baptized are called to holiness and exhorted the faithful to teach “sound doctrine” by the example of their lives.
Córdoba, “land of saints”
The celebration took place on the esplanade of the Military Aviation School, during the apostolic journey the Pontiff is making to Uruguay, Argentina and Peru between November 6 and 17. The Pope presented the city as heir to the first episcopal see established in Argentina. He described it as a land through whose convents, streets and hospitals passed men and women who gave their lives for the Gospel.
Leo XIV began with Peter’s confession, which, he said, has echoed throughout history in his successors. He linked that confession to the witness of the saints. He presented them as simple servants who fulfilled their duty without realizing how extraordinary their work would be (cf. Lk 17:10).
The Pope quoted the well-known sermon of Saint Leo the Great, whose liturgical memorial was celebrated that day and to whose protection he said he entrusted himself: “Recognize, O Christian, your dignity, for you share in the divine nature, and do not wish to return to your former vileness by a depraved life.” He recalled that the call to holiness is always missionary and expressed it with the Thomistic maxim contemplata aliis tradere (“to hand on to others what has been contemplated”). He supported the need for personal example with words of Saint John Paul II in Buenos Aires in 1987. That witness, he stressed, “demands total adherence to Jesus Christ, without fissures.”
Brochero and Mama Antula, formed by Saint Ignatius
The center of the homily was dedicated to the two saints most closely linked to the region. Of Father José Gabriel del Rosario Brochero, the Pope highlighted that the Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius changed his life forever. He recalled that he devoted himself to proclaiming the Gospel “with no other weapons than the crucifix and the holy rosary.”
Of María Antonia de Paz y Figueroa, Mama Antula, he emphasized that she knew how to unite contemplation with service to her neighbor, convinced that the best charity is to bring people closer to God. He quoted Francis to recall that the poor need God. He also evoked the saint’s maxim: to go wherever God is not known, in order to make Him known.
A journey through Argentine holiness
The Pontiff gave thanks for the martyrs. Among them he mentioned Saint Héctor Valdivielso Sáez, the blesseds martyred in the Spanish Civil War, and those of the provinces of La Rioja and Salta. He also recalled pastors such as Friar Mamerto Esquiú and Cardinal Eduardo Pironio, and foundresses such as Saint Nazaria Ignacia, María del Tránsito Cabanillas and Catalina de María Rodríguez. Among the laity he mentioned Saint Artémides Zatti, Ceferino Namuncurá and Laura Vicuña.
The image of the Poor Christ presided over the celebration. Brochero himself had it carved from his sickbed, and in its face, the Pope said, the features of the people were captured. Leo XIV concluded with a double sending: “Go and be holy!”, in school and in the square, in the family, in the countryside and in the city, in the dairy farm and in the office. And then: “Go and evangelize!”
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https://infovaticana.com/2026/11/09/jovenes-cartel-misa-tradicional-leon-xiv-buenos-aires/