Saints & Holy Relics Make Nationwide News...

 

 

Portraits of America's new Saints:

St. Kateri Tekakwitha & St. Marianne Cope

 

The Canonizations celebrated on 10/21/2012 by the Catholic Church has garnered a surprisingly large amount of mainstream news coverage in the USA - both on television and online - during the past few weeks.  Undoubtedly, it probably had a lot to do with the fact that two of the seven new Saints had lived and died on American soil - the already-famous, St. Marianne Cope of Molokai (d. 1918), and the not-so-well-known (but equally virtuous), St. Kateri ("Katherine") Tekakwitha (d. 1680), a Native American from the Mohawk Indian Tribe.  

 

I was actually quite happy to see how many of the news stories prominently featured the two miraculous healings attributed to the intercessions of St. Marianne and St. Kateri, which were also approved by the Church as integral validations of  their respective Canonization Causes. Interestingly, both cures involved the devout use of Holy Relics... and since this little ministry is mainly dedicated to promoting devotion to the Saints and their sacred remains, I couldn't resist writing about it!

 

A small glass phial, filled with soil from

the original grave of St. Marianne Cope, sits

beside a veil-relic of the Blessed Virgin Mary

in this ministry's custody.  The soil was a gift

from a dear friend who received it from a

nun of St. Marianne's congregation.

 

In the case of the healing attributed to St. Marianne Cope, a woman named Sharon Smith from Syracuse, New York (the same city where St. Marianne originally became a nun), was dying from severe pancreatitis in 2005.  Upon hearing of her condition, a nun from St. Marianne's congregation pinned a plastic packet to Smith's hospital gown and prayed for the patient to be cured.  The small pack contained soil from Mother Marianne's original grave in Kalaupapa - a 3rd Class Relic - that was apparently a factor in the inexplicable healing that resulted soon after.

 

The miracle attributed to St. Kateri Tekakwitha involved the 2006 cure of a young boy - Jake Finkbonner - whose was dying from a severe infection of the infamous "flesh-eating bacteria" after medical treatment failed to stop it from spreading throughout his body.  Again, in this case, a nun placed a relic (1st Class) of the future Saint on the dying child and the advance of the killer bacteria was halted within hours. Below is a portion of a story about Jake's cure that I clipped from Yahoo:

 

According to the Bible, in the early years of the Church, God used St. Paul to cure the sick and to work incredible wonders for the benefit of the Faithful:

 

"Meanwhile, God worked

extraordinary miracles at the hands

of Paul.  When handkerchiefs or cloths

which had touched his skin were applied

to the sick, their diseases were cured

and evil spirits departed from them."

 

~ Acts 19:11-12

 

... and now, reading and watching all the news coverage about this past Canonization ceremony brings me joy and excitement because it just goes to show that God is still working the same miracles today; that the Church's devotion to the Saints and their respective relics still has relevance and spiritual value even in our modern times.  Thanks and praises be to God... and blessed be the Saints who accomplished his Divine Will!