Welcome to my first post-vacation edition of Vatican Insider as we start the busy news month of October with the Synod on Synodality in the Vatican and a number of interesting appointments for the Pope, including a canonization ceremony.

But now, as I do every Friday, let me tell you about my guest in this week’s interview segment, Jesuit Fr. Michael Maher. He is an expert in the Belgium-based Societe des Bollandistes (Society of Bollandists) whose scholars, Jesuits and lay people, since the early 17th century, specialize in the study and research of hagiography, the writing of lives of saints and blessed.