Pope Benedict XVI canonized seven saints Oct. 21 — two of them were from the U.S. The new St. Marianne Cope was a Sister of St. Francis who helped open or improve health care facilities in New York and Hawaii in the late 1880s. Newly sainted Kateri Tekakwitha was a Mohawk woman living in what is today upstate New York. She converted to Catholicism in the late 1600s and helped to teach the faith to children and minister to the sick and elderly.
According to information from Catholic News Service, about 80,000 pilgrims from the U.S., Canada, the Philippines, Italy, Spain, Germany and Madagascar filled St. Peter's Square for the canonization of the two U.S. women and Pedro Calungsod, Jacques Berthieu, Giovanni Battista Piamarta, Carmen Salles Barangueras, and Anna Schaffer.
During the canonization Mass, the pontiff formally proclaimed each candidate a saint and spoke briefly about each person's ministry and their contribution to the church. During a Liturgy, honorees associated with the saints' ministries offered intercessions and later presented relics of the saints, for the Vatican reliquary. The first-class relic for St. Marianne was one of her bone fragments, affixed to a wooden tau cross.
"The canonization was very inspiring," said Sr. Agnelle Ching, OSF. She attended the canonization ceremony and related events spanning several days. Sr. Ching is assistant general manager of the Sisters of St. Francis of the Neumann Communities, and chief sponsorship officer for Honolulu's St. Francis Healthcare System of Hawaii, a system that evolved from ministries started by St. Marianne.
Sr. Ching said she felt Jesus' presence throughout the canonization, and she said she was moved by the gloriousness of the church. She also said she was struck by the diversity of the church — many languages and cultures were represented among the ceremony participants.
Sr. Ching participated in the celebrations not only as a representative of St. Marianne's congregation, but also as one of two women religious on President Barack Obama's delegation to the canonization. Sr. Kateri Mitchell, a Sister of Saint Ann, who is executive director of the Tekakwitha Conference in Great Falls, Mont., also was a U.S. delegate.
Miguel Humberto Diaz, the U.S. ambassador to the Holy See, headed the delegation; and he and his wife Marian hosted the two sisters at a reception at the Vatican museum, at cultural dance performances by a Honolulu dance group and a Native American dance group and on a trip to Assisi, where they visited the Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi and the residence of a group of friars who are caretakers of the basilica.
Sr. Ching said she was gratified to witness the church's health care ministry being elevated throughout the week's activities and to see the pontiff and the canonization attendees honor St. Marianne and the other saints in such a meaningful way.
"I don't think anyone could walk away not having been moved," she said of the celebration.