Kateri Tekakwitha, Marianne Cope to be Canonized

Most wonderful news!

The Holy Father today received in audience Cardinal Angelo Amato S.D.B., prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, and authorised the promulgation of decrees concerning the following causes:

Okay, basically, that’s a list of holy teachers and martyrs and miracles, but the big news for us is in my headline!

Back in July, I wrote about Kateri Tekakwitha and linked to a remarkable story of healing apparently effected with the help of her intercessory prayers.

Now this “Lily of the Mohawks” — who died in 1680 and was declared “Venerable” in 1943 — will be Saint Kateri Tekakwitha, and I have no doubt the Native American Catholic Community will be rightly overjoyed!

The significance of it being “one of their own,” can’t be overstated, Father Jamison said. He explained how, for example, the Native people are awaiting the canonization of Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha.

“They are pining for this,” he said. “If it happened yesterday, it wouldn’t be soon enough.”

And Kathy Schiffer gives a good accounting of why we rejoice too for the inclusion of Marianne Cope!

With six other Sisters of St. Francis, Mother Marianne arrived at Honolulu in November 1883. The sisters would manage and serve at the Kaka’ako Branch Hospital on Oahu, a receiving station where Hansen’s disease (leprosy) patients from throughout the Hawaiian Islands were sent to prevent further spread of the disease. Within two years, the sisters had cleaned the hospital and treated the 200 patients, making major improvements in living conditions; and in 1905 they founded the Kapi’olani Home, a residence for the daughters of leprosy patients, within the walls of the hospital compound. Fear of the disease had made public officials unwilling to care for the close relatives of those afflicted by the disease; only the sisters would welcome them and offer the home and education that these girls needed.

Both women (as the rest on the Vatican list) led heroic lives of faith. It is wonderful to be able to draw from the example of our Christian ancestors, and to be able to count on the prayers of the “cloud of witnesses”.