CWN Editor's Note: Pope Francis has approved the canonization of the martyrs of Compiegne, the 16 Carmelite nuns who died at the guillotine during the French Revolution, and his heroic witness has inspired works such as the opera, Dialogues of the Carmelites, by Francis Poulenc.

The Dicastery for the Causes of Saints announced on December 18 that the Pope had approved the "equipollent canonization" -- dispensing with the ordinary process -- for the French Carmelite martyrs.

In other decrees released the same day, the Dicastery certified the martyrdom of Eduard Profittlich, a Jesuit who served as archbishop in Estonia and was killed in Russia in 1942; and Elia Comini, a Salesian priest killed in Italy in 1944.

The Vatican also declared the "heroic virtue" of Aron Marton, a Romanian bishop who died in 1980; Giuseppe Maria Leone, a Redemptorist priest who died in Italy in 1902; and Pierre Goursat, a French layman who died in 1991.