2014-05-16 10:58:00

2popesaints: the Canonization in Tweets


(Vatican Radio) Americans stayed up in the pre-dawn hours of the morning to follow live coverage of the double Canonization April 27 of Popes John Paul II and John XXIII.  According to the Italian startup Datalytics which analyses social trends on Twitter, the number of tweets from Europe, North and South America exploded during the morning mass in St. Peter’s square in Rome. Some 104,000 messages in multiple languages were sent between April 26-28 using the official hashtags “#2popesaints” and the Italian version “#2papisanti.”  The tweets about the canonization peaked at 19,500 at the moment Pope Francis pronounced the formula raising the two beloved popes to sainthood.  

70,000 tweets came from the USA, Canada and Europe while 27,000 came from South America, in large part from Argentina. The remaining tweets were made around the globe. 

Datalytics founder Davide Feltoni Gurini told Vatican Radio that the overwhelming majority of tweets about the event, which drew more than one million faithful to Rome, were positive.  Pope John Paul II, whose nearly 27 year reign made him known and loved by generations of people young and old, proved the more popular of the two pontiffs, leading his predecessor with 10,900 to John XXIII’s 7,150 tweets in the Italian language alone. 

51% of those tweeting about the canonization were male, while 49% were female.  70% of the tweets were made via a mobile device, possibly suggesting the users were physically present in Rome.

The Pontifical Council for Social Communications and the Vatican Press office’s accounts were the most active during the event, generating the most re-tweets via the English language hashtag #2popesaints.”

Of the most shared photos on the day of the event:  a tweet from “@vaticano_news” giving a bird’s-eye view from atop Bernini’s spectacular colonnade of a packed St. Peter’s square below.  Another popular tweet, bound to have caused a chuckle, displayed a mocked-up photo of John XXIII, John Paul II, Benedict XVI and Pope Francis strutting across a pedestrian walkway in regular Abbey Road Beatles-style.

Besides the official Twitter accounts for the canonization, the most popular hashtags proved to be #canonization, #sanctification, #saints, #iwillsing, #roma, #popefrancis, and #papisanti.

Feltoni Gurini says the most frequently used key words tweeted around the canonization were “lembo di pelle” or “skin fragment” in reference to the relic of Pope John XXIII, and “ampule” which contained a sample of Pope John Paul II’s blood.  During the liturgy, mega television screens flashed images of the two reliquaries as they were placed at the altar for veneration, so it might be assumed that some of the faithful who knew what they contained passed the information on to friends and followers via social media.

Other recurring words included “ceremony+canonization,”  “state+nominated,” “new+icon,” “faith+women.”

Some of the most frequent phrases shared in tweets quoted John Paul II’s Letter to Women, Mulieris Dignitatem: “in this most arduous test of faith and fidelity the women proved stronger than the Apostles. In this moment of danger, those who love much succeed in overcoming their fear.”  Another favorite tweet stemmed from JPII’s Letter to Artists:  “all men and women are entrusted with the task of crafting their own life: in a certain sense, they are to make of it a work of art, a masterpiece.”

Datalytics found that the Italian television news SkyTg24 and the Italian daily Repubblica.it  provided the most tweeted coverage of the event and particularly of Pope John Paul II, while internationally acclaimed Italian singer-songwriter Laura Pausini was also a leading tweeter.








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