Reflecting Heaven Part 12: Some of the American Saints in the Lower Section Apse (contnued)

07-14-2021Reflecting HeavenFr. Don Kline, V.F.

St. Kateri Tekakwitha
Native American and consecrated virgin

Nicknames are generally silly, entertaining names given to people by affectionate relatives or friends. It’s rare to hear an enviable one. But “Lily of the Mohawks?” Now, that’s an elegant nickname. This is the nickname of St. Kateri Tekakwitha. Orphaned at the age of four, she was raised by her uncle, the chief of the Mohawk village. When priests came to the village, Kateri was drawn by their teachings, and 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. Finally, a missionary encouraged her to run away to Montreal, Canada, to practice her faith freely. She followed his advice, and lived a life of extreme prayer and penance, taking a vow of virginity. She was beatified in 1980 and canonized on October 21, 2012.

St. Mother Théodore Guérin, S.P.
Missionary and founder of the Sisters of Providence of Saint Mary-of-the-Woods

Théodore Guérin was born October 2nd, 1784 in Etables, France. At the age of ten, she received her First Holy Communion and announced to the parish priest that she would one day be a nun. At the age of 25, she fulfilled this statement, entering the order of the Sisters of Providence of Ruillé-sur-Loir, whose mission it was to educate children and to care for the poor, sick and dying. While serving at the convent, Théodore was asked to lead a small band of missionary sisters to Indiana in the United States of America. When the sisters arrived, there was only a log cabin with a porch that served as a chapel. Though her health was suffering, Théodore fell to this new task with a will. By the time she died in 1856, Mother Théodore had opened schools in Illinois and throughout Indiana. The sisters were well-established and respected. Through illness, poverty and all manner of unwelcoming circumstances, she trusted in God’s providence and lived as a model of belief in his mercy. She was canonized in 2006, and is known as the patron saint of Indianapolis.

Blessed Francis Xavier Seelos, C.Ss.R.
Missionary preacher

As a child, Blessed Francis Xavier Seelos, C.Ss.R. used to claim that he didn’t simply want to imitate his patron saint: he wanted to be another St.Francis Xavier. He entered the seminary in Augsburg after completing a degree in Philosophy. While there, he heard about the missionary activity of the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer, and traveled to North America, specifically to become a Redemptorist priest. For nine years, he worked as the assistant of St. John Neumann in the parish of St. Philomena in Pittsburgh. He dedicated himself to the mission of preaching, and, before long, he had attained a reputation as an excellent preacher and an insightful, attentive spiritual director. He was also known for a happy availability for anyone who might need him at any time. He became pastor of the church of St. Mary of the Assumption in New Orleans, and died there of yellow fever while nursing the sick during an epidemic.

St. Isaac Jogues, S.J.
Jesuit priest, missionary and one of the North American martyrs

St. Isaac Jogues was born in 1607 and ordained a Jesuit priest in 1636. During the year following his ordination, Isaac saw the fulfillment of his dearest wish: to be a missionary to the Indians in New France. His first several years of missionary work among the Indians were quiet enough, but in 1641, he and a group of fellow missionaries traveled to Iroquois country. There, the missionaries were whipped, bitten, and tormented in the most barbarous ways imaginable. St. Isaac Jogues became a living martyr, watching his friends die around him and being constantly threatened by death himself. After a year of this torment, in which Isaac was able to evangelize and baptize a few of the Iroquois, a chance for escape presented itself. He boarded a Dutch ship and went back to France. This only lasted a few months, however, as his heart still longed to bring the Word of God to the Iroquois.This return mission was to be his last. Isaac foresaw this when he wrote to a fellow Jesuit, saying “My heart tells me that, if I am the one to be sent on this mission, I shall go but I shall not return. But I would be happy if our Lord wished to complete the sacrifice where he began it.” He was killed with a tomahawk in 1646, and canonized a saint in 1930 by Pope Pius XI. He is the patron saint of the Americas and Canada.

St. Frances Xavier Cabrini, M.S.C.
Missionary and founder of the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus

Francis Xavier Cabrini was born into a family of thirteen children. Due to health reasons, her first request to join a religious community was refused, but she was finally able to take her vows in 1877. Soon after being named prioress of the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart, she was urged by Pope Leo XIII to become a missionary in the United States. However, the house that had been promised to her for an orphanage was unavailable when she reached New York City, and the archbishop advised her to return to Italy. Frances departed from the archbishop’s residence all the more determined to stay and establish that orphanage. And she did. In 35 years, Frances Xavier Cabrini founded 6 institutions for the poor, the abandoned, the uneducated and the sick, and organized schools and adult education classes for formation in the Catholic Faith. She died of malaria in her own Columbus Hospital in Chicago in 1917. She was the first United States Citizen to be canonized, and she is known as the patron saint of immigrants.

St. Rose Philippine Duchesne, R.S.C.J.
Missionary to Native Americans

St. Rose Philippine Duchesne was a passionate young woman with a heart for missionary work. She joined the Visitation nuns at the age of 19, but a few years later, convents were shut down during the French Revolution, and Rose was forced to return to life as a lay woman for many years. Ten years later, she was finally able to rejoin a convent, this time as a member of the Society of the Sacred Heart. In 1818, she was sent to the Louisiana Territory as a missionary, facing illness, hardship and hunger to bring Catholicism to the Native Americans. 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 Pottawatomie Indians as the “Woman Who Prays Always.”

Blessed Sister Miriam Teresa, S.C.
Sister of Charity of St. Elizabeth

Teresa Demjanovich was born in 1901 to a Ruthenian family who had emigrated to New Jersey.  She was a smart young woman who graduated high school at the age of 15.  Her intellectual gifts were matched by her charity, as she delayed entering a convent to take care of her terminally ill parents.  As a novice, Teresa took the name Miriam Teresa.  Before she made her final vows, she was asked by her spiritual director to write down her spirituality for use in the training of other novices.  This spiritual work was posthumously published under the title of Greater Perfection.  In late 1926, Teresa fell ill and made her final vows from a hospital bed.  She died on May 8, 1927.  On October 4, 2014, Miriam Teresa was beatified at the Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart in Newark, NJ, the first beatification in the US.

Blessed Father Stanley Rother
Martyr, Missionary to Guatemala

An Oklahoma farm boy, Father Stanley Francis Rother was born March 27, 1935, in Okarche, Oklahoma. Ordained a priest for the Diocese of Oklahoma City and Tulsa in 1963, he served in the diocese’s Guatemala mission for fourteen years. He served the native Tzutuhil tribe, who are decedents of the Mayans. In order to serve his people, Fr. Rother learned both Spanish and the Tzutuhil language. Surrounded by extreme poverty, Fr.  Rother ministered to his parishioners in their homes, eating with them, visiting the sick, aiding with medical problems and helping farm. While he served in Guatemala, a civil war raged between the militarist government forces and the guerillas. During this, conflict hundreds of thousands of Catholics were killed due to the Church’s insistence on helping people.  Eventually, Fr.  Rother was targeted. For his safety, Fr. Rother returned to Oklahoma. Determined to give his life completely to his people, he stated that “the shepherd cannot run.”  Returning to Santiago Atitlan, he continued to minister to his people.  Within days of his return, three men entered the rectory and executed Fr. Rother.  Seeking justice in the midst of a protracted civil war, Fr. Rother fought courageously for the well-being of his people. 

Blessed Father Solanus Casey, O.F.M. Cap.
Capuchin Franciscan, Humble Servant

Fr Solanus Casey was born on November 25th, 1870, in Oak Grove, Wisconsin. He entered the Capuchin Franciscans in Detroit in 1897.  Known as “The Doorkeeper” when he was porter at St, Bonaventure’s monastery, he was always ready to open the doors of the monastery to listen to anyone who knocked. He faithfully and humbly served the people of Detroit, MI, Huntington, IN and New York by providing soup for the hungry, kind words for the troubled, and a healing touch for the sick. People would seek out Fr. Solanus asking for “special favors,” which lead to numerous miraculous healings and answered prayers.  Known for his devotion to the Blessed Sacrament, Fr. Solanus would often play his violin for Jesus in the presence of the tabernacle. Fr. Solanus was diagnosed with erysipelas and died on July 31st, 1957. His body was found incorrupt thirty years after his death. He was declared venerable by Pope John Paul II on July 11th, 1995 and was beatified on November 18th, 2017 in Detroit. 

Stay tuned for articles that will focus on our Blessed Mother under the title “The Immaculate Conception” This image of Our Lady located in the center of the apse will offer us many opportunities for prayerful reflection.

The Immaculate Conception is a painting by Italian painter Giovanni Battista Tiepolo (1696–1770). The painting was one of seven altarpieces commissioned in March 1767 from Tiepolo by King Charles III of Spain for the Church of Saint Pascual in Aranjuez, then under construction. This was originally an Alcantarine (Franciscan) monastery that was later assigned to the Conceptionist nuns. 

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