Swedish nurse who saved Jews now made saint

Vatican City: A Swedish nurse who converted to Catholicism and helped dozens of Jews during the Holocaust was made a saint on Sunday — Sweden’s first in six centuries.

Pope Francis canonised Mary Elizabeth Hesselblad at a ceremony in Saint Peter's Square. She had been beatified by Pope John Paul II in 2000 after a 30-year campaign.

Hesselblad is only the second Swede to receive sainthood, following Saint Bridget 625 years ago. Hesselblad was born in 1870 into a Lutheran family with 13 children before heading to the United States in her teens. She landed in New York and became a nurse and soon converted to Catholicism in 1902 and left for Rome two years later.

She reportedly saved more than 60 Jews during World War II, hiding entire families inside her convent in Rome for about six months before the war finally came to an end. Israel honoured Hesselblad as one of the Righteous Among the Nations in 2004, an award bestowed upon non-Jews who helped Jews during the Holocaust. Mother Elizabeth died in Rome in 1957, at the age of 87.

During her time in Rome, Hesselblad is credited with promoting peace between Catholics and non-Catholics, and for pushing other Christians and non-Christians alike toward the Catholic Church.