American saints in addition to Saint Mother Theodore Guerin
St. Elizabeth Ann Bayley Seton (1774-1821): foundress of the American Sisters
of Charity, convert to Catholicism, first native-born citizen of the United States to be
canonized, once married with family, endured tremendous personal hardships before
devoting life to education and charity.
St. John Neumann (1811-1860): missionary, priest, fourth bishop of Philadelphia,
born in Bohemia, responsible for bringing seven religious communities to the Diocese of
Philadelphia, devoted much time to hearing confessions, visiting the sick, and teaching
the Catechism to children.
St. Rose Philippine Duchesne (1769-1852): missionary; during height of civil
unrest in France in the 1790s, organized works of charity for the poor, and offered
material and spiritual support to priests in prison or hiding, opened convent school
Missouri, served as missionary to Native Americans, often caring for their sick.
St. Isaac Jogues (1607-1646): French missionary, first Catholic priest at Manhattan
Island, first to preach the Gospel “a thousand miles to the interior” near Lake Superior,
devoted to converting Native Americans, captured and tortured and held in slavery by
Native Americans, martyred by Iroquois because they believed he was a sorcerer and cast
a spell on their tribe.
St. René Goupil (1607-1642): Martyred in New York. Jesuit missionary, surgeon in
Quebec hospitals, captured by Iroquois, tortured, taught children the sign of the cross,
first of his order in the Canadian missions to suffer martyrdom.
St. Katherine Drexel (1858-1955): dubbed by journalist as “millionaire nun,”
founded Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament for Indians and Colored People now officially
called the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament, spent nearly twenty million dollars from the
income of her parents estate to establish 60 missions to care for the education of Native
and African Americans to whom she and her sisters dedicated their lives, focused her
work and her love on the nation’s poorest and most oppressed, founded Xavier University
in New Orleans.
St. Frances Xavier Cabrini (1850-1917): missionary, first American citizen to
be canonized, came to United States to help Italian immigrants, cared for the poor and
sick and those incarcerated in jails, established orphanages, offered education to children
and adults, established parish schools in several major cities across United States.
St. Damien De Veuster of Molokai (1840-1889): missionary, began his service
in the priesthood in Hawaii, volunteered to go to Molokai, a leprosy settlement, where
faithful were living and dying in desperate conditions; initiated construction of hospitals,
orphanages and homes, as many as 374 on island; began perpetual Eucharistic adoration
at the settlement; eventually contracted leprosy and died; buried with 2,000 other lepers;
patron of outcasts and those afflicted with HIV/AIDS.
Coming October 21, 2012
Mother Marianne Cope (1838-1918): known as the leprosy nun, Father
Damien’s replacement, at his bedside when he died; supervisor at St. Joseph Hospital in
Syracuse, N.Y., and known to be far ahead of her time in patients’ rights; known for
charitable works and virtuous deeds; worked 30 years with lepers; eventually named by
the government to take over the whole colony of lepers; more than 60 sisters have
followed her lead in working with lepers and none have ever contracted the disease.
Kateri Tekakwitha (1656-1680): known as Lily of the Mohawks; first Native
American woman to be venerated in Catholic Church; daughter of Mohawk chief and
Algonquin mother; she is said to have appeared before three individuals with wooden
cross in hand after her death; tradition holds that scars on her face from smallpox
vanished at the time of her death; known for chastity and mortification of flesh, and her
perceived healing powers.