Pope Francis created 10 new saints on Sunday, rallying from knee pain that has forced him to use a wheelchair to preside over the first canonization ceremony at the Vatican in over two years.

Francis stood for a long period at the start of the ceremony to greet priests concelebrating the Mass, and hobbled onto the altar to proclaim the six men and four women saints. They include a Dutch priest-journalist who was killed by the Nazis, a lay Indian convert who was killed for his faith and a half-dozen French and Italian priests and nuns who founded religious orders.

Francis told the crowd of an estimated 45,000 in St Peter’s Square that the 10 embodied holiness in everyday life, and said the church needs to embrace this idea rather than an unattainable ideal of personal achievement.