Pope Francis recognized the martyrdom of members of a Polish family who were sheltering a Jewish family during World War II, and, for the first time, advanced the sainthood cause of a candidate under the category of heroically offering his life out of loving service to others.

And following centuries of church debate, the pope also advanced the sainthood cause of his confrere, Jesuit Father Matteo Ricci, the 16th-century missionary to China.

During a meeting on Dec. 17 with Cardinal Marcello Semeraro, prefect of the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, the pope also signed decrees advancing the sainthood causes of an Uruguayan bishop, 12 priests and religious men and women, and one laywoman.

Father Ricci, who was born in 1552 in Macerata, in central Italy, spent 28 years evangelizing, absorbing Chinese culture and bringing Western science to the faraway Asian continent.

Father Ricci won the trust and admiration of the Ming Dynasty Emperor Wanli, ensuring that he and his Jesuit brothers would have the freedom to evangelize.

He was a man of science, a cartographer, an astronomer and a mathematician and he immersed himself in Chinese culture, enough to be able to translate many works, including a Catholic catechism, into Chinese and the teachings of Confucius into Portuguese.

The diocesan phase of Father Ricci’s sainthood cause opened in 1984 but was almost immediately closed when questions were raised about his commitment to pure Christianity. It opened again with Vatican approval in 2010.

Both Popes Benedict XVI and Francis have praised Father Ricci for being able to proclaim the Gospel with clarity and prudence in dialogue with another culture.