Centuries-old monasteries have been damaged by an ongoing series of earthquakes in a secluded monastic community in northern Greece, authorities said Friday.

A magnitude 5.3 earthquake struck the Mount Athos peninsula on June 7, followed by a series of both undersea and land-based tremors that continued through Friday.

When Pope Leo XIV stepped out on the central loggia of St. Peter's Basilica to greet the crowd for the first time after his May 8 election, liturgical fashion aficionados around the globe took note: Gone was the simple white cassock and silver cross favored by Pope Francis. Back was the red satin mozzetta shoulder cape, the burgundy stola with gold embroidery and a gold cross held by a double-stranded silken gold cord.

Over Leo's first few weeks, the excitement grew among liturgical fashion-conscious Catholics as they noticed new additions to the wardrobe, or rather a return to the old additions of the papal wardrobe: cufflinks, white pants, lace.

Pope Leo XIV on Friday set Sept. 7 as the rescheduled date to canonize the Catholic Church's first millennial-era saint, Carlo Acutis, in what is expected to be Leo's first saint-making ceremony as well.

Leo made the announcement during a meeting of cardinals, known as a consistory, to set the dates for a handful of new saints.

The famous wind-powered beach beasts have scuttled along the Dutch North Sea coast, into a swanky Miami art show and even onto "The Simpsons."

Now. they have a final resting place in a Dutch city most famous for "Girl with a Pearl Earring" painter Johannes Vermeer and blue-painted pottery.

Pope Leo XIV made his first appointment of a Chinese bishop under the Vatican's 2018 agreement with Beijing, signalling he is continuing one of Pope Francis' most controversial foreign policy decisions.

The Vatican expressed satisfaction that Leo's June 5 nomination of Bishop Joseph Lin Yuntuan as auxiliary bishop of Fuzhou was recognized Wednesday by Chinese authorities.

The heartland Brazilian city of Pirenópolis is hosting its annual Cavalhadas festival, a Holy Spirit celebration where participants ride horses, wear masks and don floral headpieces.

The tradition began in the 1800s with a Portuguese priest who wanted to celebrate the Holy Spirit — one of the entities of the Roman Catholic Church's trinity — and also commemorate the victory of Iberian Christian knights over the Moors.

Hundreds of thousands of Catholic pilgrims slogged for days under a punishing sun through country roads, sandy paths, even a river ford to reach the tiny hamlet of El Rocío in southern Spain for Pentecost weekend.

An icon of the Virgin Mary — La Virgen del Rocío — has been venerated in this remote area since the Middle Ages.

Tens of thousands of Muslim pilgrims clambered up rocks and nestled between boulders on Thursday as they embarked on a day of worship under a scorching sun at the Hajj in Saudi Arabia.

Braving the heat and uneven surfaces, they scaled Mount Arafat to perform a key ritual of the annual Islamic pilgrimage.

As I prepared to take a photograph of an anti-American mural outside of the former U.S. Embassy in Iran's capital recently, a passerby called out to me.

"Take any picture you like, they'll remove all of them later," the man said.

More than 1.5 million foreign pilgrims are in Saudi Arabia for this year's Hajj, a government spokesperson said Wednesday.

Hajj is one of the Five Pillars of Islam, a religious obligation involving rituals and acts of worship that every Muslim must fulfil if they have the money and are physically able to do it.