Cheers rose from the crowd when the pope named Kateri Tekakwitha, known as “Lily of the Mohawks” and beloved by American Indians; and Sister Marianne Cope, a German-born nun who was raised in Utica, N.Y., before moving to Hawaii. But the loudest cheers were for St. Pedro Calungsod, a 17th-century Filipino martyr, from a large contingent of Italy’s Filipino community that came out to celebrate.
The canonization Mass comes amid a meeting of bishops aimed at shoring up religious belief worldwide, and several of the saints were missionaries.
Benedict prayed that “the witness of the new saints” would “speak today to the whole church.” “May their intercession strengthen and sustain her in her mission to proclaim the Gospel to the whole world,” he added.
Kateri was born in Auriesville, N.Y., about 40 miles northwest of Albany, in 1656, to an Algonquin mother and a father who was Mohawk. She was baptized by French Jesuits at age 20, after losing her parents in a smallpox epidemic. After being persecuted by some of her contemporaries for her faith, she fled to an Indian settlement in what is now Canada, where she died at age 24.
“Kateri impresses us by the action of grace in her life in spite of the absence of external help, and by the courage of her vocation, so unusual in her culture,” Benedict said, as he sat on a golden throne wearing a cream-colored mantle with golden stripes and a miter with red trim.
“May her example help us to live where we are, loving Jesus without denying who we are,” he said. “St. Kateri, protectress of Canada and the first American Indian saint, we entrust you to the renewal of the faith in the first nations and in all of North America.”
American Indians from across the United States and Canada had come to Rome to celebrate Kateri, who had long been a symbol of hope. Early Sunday morning, a group from the First Nation of the Ojibwe in Manitoba, Canada, stood in St. Peter’s Square sounding round leather drums and singing “Kateri, o Kateri, you’re in my holy plan.”
“We’re very excited and happy to be here,” said one singer, Nancy Bruyere, who wore two long black braids and fringed leather clothing.
Last year, Benedict confirmed that an 11-year-old American Indian boy from Washington State had been miraculously cured of flesh-eating bacteria after his parents prayed for intervention through Kateri in 2006, the second miracle required to confirm her sainthood.
Some American Indians have said that canonizing Kateri is an implicit offense to American Indian traditions, but Eleanor Smith, a youthful 80, from Albuquerque, did not agree.
“It’s a combination of your Catholic and your native traditions blending together,” said Ms. Smith, who is of Mississippi Choctaw and Navajo heritage. “We all believe in the same creator. God, creator, Father Sky — it’s all the same.”
Others came to honor St. Marianne Cope, a former mother superior of the Third Order Regular of St. Francis in Syracuse, who moved to the island of Molokai in 1883 to tend to those with Hansen’s disease, or leprosy. There, she worked with Father Damien De Veuster, a Belgian priest who was canonized in 2009.
Benedict called St. Marianne, who died in 1913, “a shining and energetic example of the best of the tradition of Catholic nursing sisters and of the spirit of her beloved St. Francis.”
Kathleen Ford, 67, had come with a group from the Diocese of Syracuse. “You can relate to her; she was a forerunner in health care,” Ms. Ford said, as she stood in a group wearing white kerchiefs that read, “Sisters of St. Francis. Beloved lover of outcasts.”
The Vatican confirmed that a woman from Syracuse was cured from complications of pancreatitis in 2005 after praying to Mother Marianne, the second miracle needed to assure the nun’s sainthood.
Yvonne Pascua, 65, said she had come to Rome from Kapaa on the island of Kauai for the canonizations of both St. Marianne and St. Damien. “After Father Damien, Sister Marianne stepped up to the plate,” she said.
Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the archbishop of New York, said it was an honor to have two saints with ties to the state. “This is an extraordinarily blessed day for New York, with now St. Kateri and St. Marianne Cope,” he said after Sunday’s Mass.
“We share them. The Canadians love St. Kateri and the Hawaiians St. Marianne Cope, but boy oh boy are we ever holding our heads high in New York,” added the cardinal, who is expected to travel to Syria this week as part of a delegation chosen by Benedict to deliver spiritual support to the war-torn region.
St. Pedro Calungsod was killed by tribesmen on Guam in 1672 when he was helping Spanish Jesuits convert the natives. Among the other saints named Sunday were Jacques Berthieu, a 19th-century Jesuit missionary who was killed by rebels in Madagascar; Carmen Salles y Barangueras, a Spanish nun; and Giovanni Battista Piamarta who founded a Catholic press in Brescia, Italy.

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: October 21, 2012
An earlier version of this article misspelled the last name of the Native American saint canonized by Pope Benedict. She is Kateri Tekakwitha, not Tekewitha.