A nearly blind monk who died helping victims of the plague and a priest who helped workers in financial difficulty are among five new saints announced by the Pope on Sunday.

New saint, the Rev Arcangelo Tadini, set up an order of nuns to take care of factory workers in the early 1900s. At the time his actions were seen as a scandal as factories were considered immoral and dangerous places. He also founded an association to give emergency loans to workers suffering from financial difficulties.

Speaking in St Peter’s Square, the Pope said, "How prophetic was Don Tadini's charismatic intuition, and how current his example is today, in this time of grave economic crisis!"

Four of the five new saints were Italian, while the fifth person to be canonised was Nuno Alvares Pereira, who helped win the Portuguese war of Independence against Castile in the 14th century.

After the war he became a Carmelite, changed his name to Nuno de Santa Maria and dedidacted his life to helping the poor and lived refusing the privileges that being a war hero could have given him.

In Portugal he is considered a national hero and a man of great spirituality.

Portuguese President Anibal Cavaco Silva said, "The canonisation of Nuno Alvares Pereira honours one of the personalities that most clearly mapped out our national history," reports The Telegraph.

Other new saints include Bernardo Tolomei, a nearly blind monk who died in the 14th century helping victims of the plague, and Gertrude Comensoli and Caterina Volpicelli, 19th century nuns who founded religious orders.

The current Pope has led only a few canonisation ceremonies in his four year reign. The previous Pope, John Paul II canonised 480 people in 25 years as Pope.