Jeannine Marino, a program specialist for the Secretariat of Evangelization and
Catechesis of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), offers "10
American Saints for the Year of Faith" to help Catholics learn about the lives
of the saints and to appreciate the history of the Catholic faith in America.
Two saints from the list, Marianne Cope and Kateri Tekakwitha,
will be canonized by Pope Benedict on October 21.
Here is the full
list:
1. St. Isaac Jogues, SJ, a missionary and one of the
North American martyrs, traveled from France to the new world shortly after his
ordination. In 1641, he and his companions were captured by the Iroquois, who
tortured and killed most of them. He was killed with a tomahawk in 1646 and
canonized in 1930.
2. St. Frances Xavier Cabrini, MSC, the
first U.S. citizen to be canonized, came to the United States as a missionary
from Italy. She founded the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and,
over 35 years, started six institutions for the poor, the abandoned, the
uneducated, and the sick. She died in 1917 and is the patron saint of
immigrants.
3. St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, SC, the first
native-born U.S. citizen to be canonized, was left poor and widowed with five
children. She converted to Catholicism and founded the first order of religious
women in America, the Sisters of Charity of St. Joseph. She was co-founder of the
first free Catholic school in America and is considered the founder of the
Catholic school system in the United States. She died in 1821.
4. St.
John Neumann, CSsR, a Redemptorist priest, was the fourth bishop of
Philadelphia from 1852 till his death in 1860. A native of Bohemia, he followed
his vocation to New York City and, at the time of his ordination, was one of
only 36 priests serving 200,000 Catholics. He founded the first diocesan
Catholic school system in the United States, growing the number of schools in
his diocese from two to one hundred.
5. St. Katharine Drexel, SBS, a
wealthy, educated young woman from Philadelphia with a deep sympathy for the
poor, gave up everything to become a missionary to the Indians and African
Americans. She founded the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament and started numerous
schools and missions for Native and African Americans. She died at the age of 96
in 1955 and was canonized in 2000.
6. St. Mother Théodore Guérin,
SP, founder of the Sisters of Providence of St. Mary-of-the-Woods, was
asked to leave France and lead a small band of missionary sisters to Indiana.
When the sisters arrived, there was only a log cabin with a porch that served as
a chapel. By the time she died in 1856, she and her community had opened schools
in Illinois and throughout Indiana. She was canonized in 2006.
7. St.
Rose Philippine Duchesne, RSCJ, a missionary to Native Americans,
traveled to the Louisiana Territory from France in 1818, where she and other
members of the Society of the Sacred Heart carried out their missionary work.
She opened the first free school for girls west of the Mississippi River, as
well as the first Catholic school for Native Americans. She was known among the
Pottowami Indians as the "Woman Who Prays Always."
8. St. Damien de
Veuster of Molokai, SSCC, missionary to the lepers of Molokai, Hawaii,
was born in Belgium in 1840 to a poor farmer and his wife. At 19, he entered the
Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary. His older brother, also a
priest in the congregation, had offered to minister to the lepers on the island
of Molokai but fell ill and couldn't go. Damien volunteered to take his place
and offered to stay in the leper colony permanently, building schools, churches,
hospitals and coffins. He contracted leprosy himself but continued to serve the
mission until his death in 1889.
9. St. Marianne Cope, OSF,
another missionary to the lepers of Molokai, joined the Sisters of the Third
Order of Saint Francis in her teens and served in leadership roles including
novice mistress of her congregation and superior of St. Joseph's Hospital in
Syracuse. She became a leader in the field of health care, often caring for
those considered outcasts, which led her to volunteer in Hawaii. In Hawaii she
cared for women and girls suffering from leprosy, providing them with an
education. She died in 1918.
10. St. Kateri Tekakwitha, also
known as the Lily of the Mohawks, converted at the age of 19, heedless of the
anger of her relatives. Because she refused to work on Sundays, she was denied
meals that day in the Mohawk village. Finally, a missionary encouraged her to
run away to Montreal, where she practiced her faith freely and lived a life of
extreme prayer and penance, taking a vow of virginity. She died in 1680.
St. Isaac Jogues, pray for us. St. Frances Xavier Cabrini, pray for us. St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, pray for us. St. John Neumann, pray for us. St. Katharine Drexel, pray for us. St. Mother Théodore Guérin, pray for us. St. Rose Philippine Duchesne, pray for us. St. Damien de Veuster of Molokai, pray for us. St. Marianne Cope, pray for us. St. Kateri Tekakwitha,
pray for us.
