Its Official: North America has 2 new Saints

On Sunday 15 October 2006 Papa Benedetto officially declared that there are now 4 more saints officially recognized by the Catholic Church. Two of those are from North America. 1 of them is Mother Théodore Guérin founder of the Sisters of Providence of Saint Mary-of-the-Woods, IN. The 2nd is Bishop Rafael Guízar y Valencia, Bishop of Veracruz, Mexico. Each of these saints went through hardships, struggles & suffering, but felt it was worth it because they were doing it for the glory of their Lord & Savior Jesus.

St Theodore Guerin was born on 2 Oct 1798 in Etables-sur-Mer in Brittany, France. Remember, this was the era of the French Revolution & Napolian's rule. From an early age she knew that she was called to the religious life. But, because her father was murdered by bandits when she was 15. So for nearly 10 years she had to help her mother care for the home & a younger sister. Shortly before she turned 25 her mother gave her permission to join a religious order. She joined the Sisters of Providence of Ruillé-sur-Loir. The order was a teaching order that also cared for the sick poor. There she was known as Sr. St. Theodore.

In 1826 she became the superior of St. Aubin Parish at Rennes. This area was still suffering from the aftermath of the French Revolution. There was devestating poverty & a huge number of unchurched. Under Sr. St. Theodore this began to change. It was slow, but the children bacame disciplined & learned the faith. In 1834 she was made the superior of Soulaines in the Diocese of Angers. There she not only gained recognition for her skills as a teacher, her work with the poor saw her learning the basics of medicine so that she could care for them.

In 1839 the Bishop Simon Gabriel Bruté of Vincennes, IN sent Rev. Celestine de la Hailandière to France. He was there to find a religious order to serve the huge number of immigrants arriving in Indiana. While there the bishop died & Fr. de la Hailandière was appointed as his successor. The Superior General of the Sisters of Providence, Mother Mary Lecor, as Sr. St. Theodore to lead a group of 5 sisters to America. After a period of prayer & discernment she agreed. On 12 July 1840 they left for America. After a difficult sea voyage & a just as difficult journey by land, they evntually arrived in St. Mary-of-the-Woods on 22 Oct 1840. They arrived to find there were already 4 new postulants waiting. the 1st school was open in 1841 & 2 more in 1842. All was not easy. This was a period of strong anti-Catholicism. & in addition to persecution & prejudice they faced illness starvation & many other trials.

By her death on 14 May 1856 the order had schools throughout Indiana, 67 professed members, 9 novices and 7 postulants. Her obituary in the Cincinnati Catholic Telegraph and Advocate had this to say: "This woman, distinguished by her eminent virtues, governed the community of which she was the superior from its commencement, to the time of her death, a period of nearly sixteen years. Being a perfect religious herself, and endowed with mental qualities of a high order, she was peculiarly fitted to fill the duties which Providence assigned her.

Not only her Sisters are bereaved by her death, but all those who knew her excellence and the amount of good she did, join in lamenting that she should have been removed from the sphere of her usefulness. To judge from the celestial expression of her countenance as she lay in death, there is every reason to believe that she has already taken her abode among the Saints in Heaven, enjoying the munificence of God, who rewards His servants 'according to their works."

She was declared a blessed by Pope John Paul the Great in October of 1988.

St. Mother Theodore Guerin Official Cause Website

The 2nd saint is Bishop Rafael Guízar y Valencia. He was born 26 Apr 1878 in Cotija, Michoacan MX. He was 1 of 11 children. His mother died when he was 9. In 1896 he entered major seminary & was ordained at aged 23 for the diocese of Zamora. In 1903 he founded the Congregation of Missionaries of Our Lady of Hope. In 1905 he was named spiritual director for the diocesan major seminary. Throughout his career he was always promoting love of the Eucharist & the Blessed Virgin Mary. He also began 3 schools with family money, 1 for girls & 2 for boys. In 1911 he began a newspaper. It was soon closed by the revolutionary movement. He was also forced to disband the Congregation he founded. From then on he experienced persecution. He often had to disguise himself. Eventually he ended up in the southern part of the USA. In 1915 he went to Guatemalia where he went arround conducting missions. he eventually went to Cuba to do the same. While there on 1 Aug 1919 he was elected Bishop of Veracruz-Jalapa MX. On 9 Jan 1920 he took posession of his diocese.

He spent the 1st 2 years as bishop getting to know about & minister to the spiritual & physical needs of his flock. But, the persecution of the Catholic Church continued to get worse. In 1921 he renovated an old seminary to start 1 back up for his diocese. But, he was soon forced to shut it down. So he clandestinely moved it to Mexico City where it operated for the next 15 years. On 16 August 1923 he joined Knights of Columbus (KCs) Council 2311 in Jalapa. A new persecution of Catholics under Mexican President Plutarco Calles in 1927 forced him to flee Mexico & couldn't return until 1929. Part of why he was able to return was the result of the KCs lobbying the US government to intervene in the situation. In 1931 Governor Tejada of Veracruz tried to put limits on the number of priests in the area. When the Bishop opposed him, the governor ordered that he be shot on sight. Bishop Guízar marched up to the governors office. The governor realized that making him a martyr would only create an uprising in the area so he canceled the death order. In fact he spent about 9 years of ministry as bishop either fleeing or in exile.

While in Cordoba in December of 1937 he suffered a heart attack. From then on he was bedridden. He died 6 June 1938 in Mexico City. He was beatified 29 Jan 1995 by Pope John Paul the Great. Papa Benedetto signed the decree approving the 2nd miracle to pave the way for his canonization.

Too often here in the USA we hear that becoming a Christian means that everything will go smoothly. That you will never suffer. & often it seems that becoming Christian is a get rich scheme. None of this is true. Sometimes people do prosper, making money & have things appear to go smooth. But the truth is Chritianity is a call to die to self. With the attacks of the faith from so many sources today it seems more like we are returning to the days of persecution like in Rome in the 1st-4th Century or Vietnam, China Japan, or Uganda in recent centuries. These saints are a sign that the struggles, no matter how hard can be over come by trusting in Jesus to pour out His Spirit to help you every day to do what you are called to do. St. Rafael is a sign to us that we may need to be willing to lay down our lives for the faith. They are truly saints for our time.

There were 2 others declared saints on Sunday. The 3rd is Rosa Venerini (1656-1728), foundress of the Congregation of the "Maestre Pie Venerini". Her whole life was focused on dying to self & surrendering to the will of God. “I feel so nailed to the Will of God that nothing else matters, neither death nor life. I want what He wants; I want to serve Him as much as pleases Him and no more”.

The 4th saint is Fr. Filippo Smaldone (1848-1923), founder of the Institute of the Salesian Sisters of the Sacred Hearts. Papa Benedetto said of him in the canonization Mass homily: "a priest with a great heart, nourished through constant prayer and Eucharistic adoration; he was above all a witness to and servant of charity which he displayed magnificently in serving the poor, especially the deaf, to whom he dedicated himself entirely."

Catholic Church's proceedure for declaring a saint