The beatification service for Józef and Wiktoria Ulma and their seven children, including a new-born baby, was held on Sunday morning in the town of Markowa, southeastern Poland, where they were killed in March 1944 for sheltering Jews.
The event was attended by over 30,000 people including Poland's President and Prime Minister among other top officials, 80 bishops, 1,000 priests, the country's chief rabbi and an Israeli delegation.
The beatification ceremony was officiated by Cardinal Marcello Semeraro, the Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, acting as Pope Francis’ representative, church officials said.
During a mass, Semeraro read a letter from Pope Francis.
"We authorise that from now on the venerable Servants of God, Józef and Wiktoria Ulma, spouses and their seven children... (who) fearlessly sacrificed their lives for the sake of love for their brothers and welcomed into their home those who suffered persecution, be given the title of blessed", the Pope wrote.
Following the announcement of the beatification, an image of the family was displayed along with a reliquary containing their remains.
Speaking from the Vatican during his Angelus message, Pope Francis said: "May this Polish family, who represented a ray of light in the darkness of the Second World War, be for us all a model to imitate in the impulse of goodness, in the service of those in need."
Addressing the gathering on Sunday, Polish President Andrzej Duda thanked the Catholic Church for the beatification on behalf of the nation.
"Thank you for showing the historical truth about that time, about the fate of Poles and Jews on this land under German occupation, who all wanted to survive and yet did not shrink from such ultimate acts of brotherhood and mercy," he said.
The pope in December approved a decree recognising the martyrdom of the Ulma family who were all killed by the Nazis for sheltering Jews.
In the autumn of 1942, a Jewish family of eight from the town of Łańcut came to Markowa to find shelter. When they asked the Ulmas to hide them, the couple agreed.
Over a year later, the Jews’ presence on the family's farm was discovered. In the spring of 1944, German police, under the command of Eilert Dieken, shot the hiding Jews to death and murdered the entire Ulma family, Józef, Wiktoria, who was seven months pregnant, and their six children, Stanisława, aged 8, Barbara, 7, Władysław, 6, Franciszek, 4, Antoni, 3, and Maria, 2.
Vatican media have noted that it is the first time that an entire family will be honoured together in this manner.
In a rare move, the Ulmas' newborn seventh child will also earn the title of "blessed". The child is eligible for beatification through the concept of "baptism of blood", having been born "at the time of the mother's martyrdom", according to the Vatican's department for saints.
In 1995, the Yad Vashem Remembrance Institute in Jerusalem recognised Józef Ulma and his wife as Righteous Among the Nations.
The Ulma Family Museum, dedicated to those who saved Jews during the Holocaust, opened in Markowa in 2016.
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Source: PAP, Reuters, AFP