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VATICAN CITY - Pope John Paul II on Sunday honored two figures linked to controversy, beatifying a German mystic whose violent visions of Christ's suffering helped inspire Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ and an Austrian emperor whose troops used poison gas.
Beatification is the last formal step in the Catholic Church before the possible conferring of sainthood, and John Paul has now beatified a record 1,338 faithful.
The choices of mystical Sister Anna Katharina Emmerick and of Karl I, who led Austria through the last years of World War I, stirred controversy.
Emmerick, a sickly, virtually illiterate nun whose powers of visualization were notable as a child, drew pilgrims to her bedside in a German convent when word spread of her gory visions of Jesus' last hours of suffering.
Gibson has spoken of how a book recounting her visions inspired him in making his blockbuster movie. The choice to honor Emmerick irritated some already unhappy about the Vatican's enthusiasm for a film some called anti-Semitic because it might be seen as depicting Jews as the major force behind Christ's death.
The Vatican has concluded that the veracity of her visions as contained in the 19th century book can't be confirmed. Officials who worked with the Vatican in examining Emmerick's life have said she was chosen for beatification because of her generosity with other poor and her extraordinary empathy with suffering.
Emmerick suffered from bleeding wounds similar to those Jesus suffered at crucifixion.
John Paul praised Karl, also known as Charles, as "a friend of peace." He also hailed the emperor, who died in 1922, as a model of "political responsibility."
Karl took the throne of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1916 and worked for peace, abdicating at the end of the war. Critics have said the Vatican had no business honoring a monarch whose troops used poison gas. Historians say he sought to limit use of the gas, angering his own commanders.
The others beatified on Sunday were Maria Ludovica de Angelis, who died in 1962; Joseph-Marie Cassant, who lived from 1878 to 1903; and Pierre Vigne, who lived in the 17th and 18th centuries.