Venerable Vincent Robert Capodanno :: Venerable Mother Mary Magdalen Bentivoglio

Venerable Father Nelson Baker :: Venerable Fr. Solanus Casey :: Venerable Fr. Walter Ciszek

Venerable Terence Cardinal Cooke :: Venerable Mother Marianne Cope :: Venerable Fr. Emil Kapaun

Venerable Fr. Michael McGivney :: Venerable Father Samuel Mazzuchelli O.P.

Venerable Seminarian Frank Parater :: Venerable Father Patrick Peyton

 Venerable Pierre Toussaint :: Venerable Father Felix Verala

Venerable Vincent Robert Capodanno (The Grunt Padre) (1929-1967)

Vincent Capodanno was born on February 13th, 1929, in Staten Island, New York. After attending a year at Fordham University, young Vincent Capodanno entered the Maryknoll Missionary seminary in upstate New York in 1949. The Maryknolls were well known for sending American missionaries overseas--especially to China and Korea.

As the communists overran China, many Maryknoll priests and bishops were imprisoned and tortured. When Capodanno finished the seminary, he was ordained a priest and received his bachelor's degree in religious instruction.

Father Capodanno's first assignment was with aboriginal Taiwanese in the mountains of Taiwan where he served in a parish and later in a school. After seven years, Father Capodanno returned to the United States for leave and then was assigned to a Maryknoll school in Hong Kong.

Looking for a different challenge, Father Capodanno requested a new assignment--as a United States Navy Chaplain serving with the U.S. Marines. After finishing officer candidate's school, Father Capodanno reported to the 7th Marines, in Vietnam, in 1966. When his tour was complete, he requested an extension, served in the naval hospital and then reported to the 5th Marines. He gained a reputation for always being there--for always taking care of his Marines.

At 4:30 am, September 4th, 1967 , in the Thang Binh District of the Que-Son Valley, elements of the 1st Battalion, 5th Marines found the large North Vietnamese Unit, approx. 2500 men, near the village of Dong Son. Operation Swift was underway. The out-numbered and disorganized Company D was in need of reinforcements. By 9:14 am, twenty-six Marines were confirmed dead. The situation was in doubt and another Company of Marines was committed to the battle. At 9:25 am, the 1st Battalion 5th Marine Commander requested assistance of two company's of the 3rd Battalion 5th Marines, "M"and "K" Company. During those early hours, Chaplain Capodanno received word of the battle taking place. He sat in on the morning briefing at the 3rd Battalion's Combat Operations Center. He took notes and listened to the radio reports coming in. As the elements of Company "M" and "K" prepared to load the helicopters. "Fr.Vince" requested to go with them. His Marines needed him. "It's not going to be easy" he stated. As Company "M" approached the small village of Chau Lam, the North Vietnamese opened up on the 2nd Platoon, which was caught on a small knoll, out in the open. The fighting was fierce, hand to hand at times, and the platoon was in danger of being overrun. Father Capodanno went among the wounded and dying, giving last rites and taking care of his Marines. Wounded once in the face and suffering another wound that almost severed his hand, Father Capodanno moved to help a wounded corpsman only yards from an enemy machinegun. Father Capodanno died taking care of one of his men. On December 27, 1968, then Secretary of the Navy Paul Ignatius notified the Capodanno family that Fr. Vincent would posthumously be awarded the Medal of Honor in recognition of his selfless sacrifice. The offical ceremony was held January 7, 1969.

Several chapels and an US Navy fast frigate were named in his honor.

On May 21, 2006, thirty-nine years after his death on the battlefield of Vietnam, Capodanno was publicly declared Servant of God, the first step towards canonization. 

Father Capodanno's inspiration and dedication to "his" Marines goes much further. His story continues even today.

Venerable Mother Mary Magdalen Bentivoglio (Incorrupt) (1854-1905)

The Bentivoglios' twelfth child was born on July 29, 1854. She was christened Anna Maria, but very soon she was dubbed Annetta, a name more suited to her lively personality. Constance was the fourteenth of the sixteen Bentivoglio children. She retained her baptismal name at the time of her investiture as a Poor Clare, but Annetta chose the name of Mary Magdalen, her childhood heroine.

As was customary in wealthy families at the time, the Bentivoglio children were placed in boarding schools at an early age. Annetta was enrolled at Trinita dei Monti in Rome where her next older sister, Elena, was also a student, and where another sister, Agata, was already a member of the Society of the Sacred Heart, an institute founded by a family friend, St. Madelaine Sophie Barat.

As a child, Annetta was quite mischievous and self-willed, and often merited punishment for her pranks. But the lively mischievous child had other qualities. There was her love of prayer, nurtured by a loving family life. When his children were away, the count would indicate to them by letter the special prayers they were to say in union with the rest of the family at home. Annetta was also known for her will to be good and her thoughtfulness of others as well. "I will be good" was her New Year resolution for 1840.

In 1842, Annetta was sent to school in Turin where her sister, Madame Agata, was then living. She remained there until the spring of 1848, when the Jesuits were expelled from Turin and convents were threatened with the same fate. Political upheavals were already setting the stage for Annetta's future.

Count Domenico died in 1851, and his widow followed him in 1860. Most of their children had already married or joined religious communities. Annetta, having refused a promising offer of marriage, remained at home with her sisters, Constance and Matilda. But since unmarried girls of such a young age could not live alone, Pope Pius 1X, in grateful memory of the services of Count Domenico, appointed his majordomo, Cardinal Barromeo, their guardian. After much searching, the cardinal found a convent that would board his young charges. To a vivacious and independent person like Annetta, this kind of enforced enclosure was repugnant.

Constance entered the Poor Clares at San Lorenzo in 1864. Annetta was undecided which religious order she should join and had been praying over this matter for some time. After learning that Matilda was intent on joining the Clares, Annetta also requested admission as a postulant. She entered July 16, 1864, and received the habit on October 4, 1865. Due to a serious illness, Matilda left the convent. Annetta remained, but kept in close contact with Matilda, and it is through their correspondence that much information concerning the American foundation was preserved for posterity.

During the next ten years, Sister Mary Magdalen concentrated on leading the contemplative life to the best of her ability, following in the footsteps of St. Clare. During the same period, things were going from bad to worse for the church in Italy. The government closed or confiscated innumerable convents and monasteries, appropriated their revenues, and left many religious homeless. At the same time, there was a dearth of religious in the new and burgeoning country of America. Mother Ignatius Hayes, founder of the Franciscan Sisters of the Immaculate Conception, took notice of the situation and turned to the "Old Country" for recruits. She first sought to enlist other Third Order Franciscans, but not finding the help she expected in that quarter, she looked to see if perhaps the Poor Clares would be willing to go to the United States. When she visited the monastery of San Lorenzo in Panisperna, three sisters manifested their willingness to answer her invitation to make a Poor Clare foundation in Belle Prairie, Minnesota, where she had forty acres and buildings at her disposal.

When the intricacies of obtaining all the necessary permissions had been overcome, Pius IX chose Sisters Mary Magdalen and Constance Bentivoglio to make the foundation, appointing Magdalen foundress and Constance vicaress. They were to be accompanied by a Franciscan, Father Paulino de Castellaro, who was also to be their spiritual director and chaplain after they reached their destination.

On August 12, 1875, Father Paolino and Mother Ignatius Hayes arrived at San Lorenzo to conduct Magdalen and Constance to the Vatican for an audience with Pope Pius IX. Speaking of this audience in her memoirs, Magdalen wrote: "The Holy Father bestowed his apostolic blessing upon all the people present. Then, making once more the sign of the cross over us, he departed, leaving us deeply touched at his truly paternal affection, and filled with courage to do God's holy will." The two sisters would need all the courage they could muster, because it would take them three whole years to arrive at the site of their first permanent monastery in America.

After leaving their cloister, the first few days were spent making farewell visits to their native Italy. After that, their journey took them to Nice, where Father Bernardine of Portogruaro was holding canonical visitation. He was not only the minister general, but had also been a strong influence in Magdalen's religious formation. On August twenty-third, in the Ursuline Convent at Nice, Father Bernardine canonically transferred the Bentivoglio sisters from the Urbanist Observance to the Primitive Observance, thus removing them from the San Lorenzo jurisdiction. He likewise handed them formal letters of obedience commissioning them to establish the Primitive Rule of St. Clare in America. From Nice they proceeded to Marseilles, where Magdalen and Constance spent eighteen days with the Poor Clares learning something about the observance of the Primitive Rule which they were to establish in America.

On September eleventh, they went aboard the Castalia, the steamer that was to carry them across the Atlantic. Though the weather remained calm, seasickness claimed its toll of passengers, Magdalen among them. On October tenth, toward evening, a little bird entered the sisters' sitting room window, "giving us, as it were, the first welcome to our new home." Finally, early on the morning of the twelfth, land was sighted. Magdalen's seasickness immediately vanished. The Castalia docked at New York about one in the afternoon and everyone except the two Poor Clares immediately disembarked. Mother lgnatius returned for them around five o'clock and took them to the convent of the Grey Sisters on West Thirty-first Street for the night.

The next day Magdalen and Constance were left entirely to themselves, and became alarmed when they received no word from anyone. Finally, they prevailed upon the superior of the convent to get someone to conduct them to Father Paulino, who had gone to St. Anthony's Friary on Sullivan Street. Father Paolino, who was having his own problems, told the sisters he had misgivings about the whole venture and had decided not to continue on to Belle Prairie but rather to await further instructions from Rome. They could continue on without him if they chose, but he recommended that they do as he was doing. For Magdalen and Constance it was not so simple to act on their own. They had been entrusted to Father Paolino's leadership, even though they had been commissioned to work with Mother Ignatius in establishing the Poor Clares of the Primitive Observance in Belle Prairie. They, too, had experienced certain misgivings during the weeks of association on the trip, but they were not ready to turn back.

When Mother Ignatius called on the sisters on October fourteenth to arrange transportation for the final lap of the journey to Belle Prairie, they told her that certain obstacles had arisen which for the present compelled them to remain where they were until further orders arrived from Rome. A few days later Father Isaac Hecker, founder of the Paulists, came to see Mother Ignatius and was introduced to the two Poor Clares. This was the beginning of a deep friendship, and Magdalen was to turn to him more than once for words of advice and consolation.

The two sisters now found themselves in a most precarious position. They were foreigners in a strange land, where the customs were different and the language unfamiliar. They were penniless, staying with sisters they hardly knew.

Days passed with no news of any kind. Then one day one of the Franciscan Fathers told them bluntly that they were a burden to the Grey Sisters with whom they were staying. Always sensitive to the feelings of others, they prayed over the matter, and then went to the Mesdames of the Sacred Heart, hoping to receive hospitality from them. But their hopes were not realized. They were only offered a bowl of soup and did not have the heart to ask for more. They had only five cents to their name, an alms given them by a poor Irish woman on the street.

Their last recourse was Father Paolino. He presented their case to Father James Titta of Gambitelli, guardian of St. Anthony's Friary, who arranged for them to stay with the Franciscan Sisters on Spring Street, who received them with great charity.

At last, on November twenty-eighth the minister general's first letter reached Magdalen. He did not know what to advise them, since he was hoping to receive more details about the situation before making a decision. He counseled them to wait. When they kept an all-night vigil in St. Stephen's Church in preparation for the Feast of Christmas, they were still waiting.

In a letter to her sister Matilda during the early spring of 1876, Magdalen wrote: "What a life, my God. The worst is this uncertainty. We do not know what to think. It does not seem possible to me that they have forgotten about us. It would be a great relief to know that they have even once given us a thought. But may the Lord's Will be done. This time we are not going to write to the minister general, because it is ten times that we have written to him without receiving an answer. You cannot imagine how we feel continually when, for six months, we find ourselves thrust upon charity in the houses of others."

It was not until the middle of June that the long-awaited letter arrived. After stating his fatherly concern for the two stranded Poor Clares, the minister general finally got down to some concrete advice. "First. The Foundation should be made in the United States of America and nowhere else. Second. The religious should be true Poor Clares, without a school and with complete enclosure. (The foundation at Belle Prairie would have had a school for poor girls connected with it.) Third. The idea of the foundation in Minnesota with Sister Ignatius Hayes should be definitely abandoned. Fourth. Try to make the foundation, first at New York, next, if not accepted there, at Cincinnati, and then at Philadelphia." How the penniless women were to make these travels over a strange territory larger than all of Italy, the minister general did not explain. Neither did he have the foresight to send along a letter of introduction.

After a day or two, Magdalen and Constance mustered their courage and faced up to the task. They called on Cardinal McCloskey of New York and asked, for the love of God, to be received into his city or diocese. He gave them a flat refusal because their form of life was against the spirit of the country. He further reproached them for remaining so long a time without doing anything. "like spoiled children, who have just received a nice scolding, we went to our good Father Hecker for a little consolation, and from him to Doctor McGlynn, who also comforted us and promised to write on our behalf to the Most Reverend John Baptist Purcell, D.D., Archbishop of Cincinnati." But he also refused to allow them to settle in his diocese.

Finally, on August tenth, they were able to go to Philadelphia to call on Archbishop James F. Wood. Looking over their letter from the minister general, he remarked with a smile, "So you have kept me for the last." However, he immediately handed them the key of one of his own houses, situated at 3627 Walnut Street in West Philadelphia.

Friends helped the nuns outfit the house. Mrs. F. A. Drexel was especially generous. They now believed their troubles were over, but all was not well. On October twenty-seventh, Magdalen and Constance received a summons from the archbishop. When the two Poor Clares arrived, they found him in consultation with his counselors. He said he was very sorry to inform them that they could no longer be retained in his diocese. He gave no other reason than the one previously offered by Cardinal McCloskey. He kindly added that they might stay in his house until they decided what to do next. After consulting with their new-found friends on Walnut Street, they decided to go to the Mesdames of the Sacred Heart at Eden Hal1 and await further instructions from Rome. In the meantime they received an unexpected offer from New Orleans.

A devout tertiary named Miss Hyllsted, who had attempted to join the Poor Clares in France, accidently heard about the homeless Poor Clares at Eden Hall and begged Archbishop Napoleon Perche of her native city of New Orleans to invite the sisters to his diocese. On December 10, 1876, Magdalen and Constance received their first actual invitation to any American diocese from the Archbishop of New Orleans. Rome approved the foundation on March 7, 1877, and Magdalen and Constance were on their way within two days. Once again they felt their wanderings were at an end.

They arrived in New Orleans on March eleventh, received a warm welcome, and quickly settled down to the business of establishing themselves in the little cottage provided for them on Flotte Street in the parish of St. Maurice. They now had two postulants, and funds were being collected to build a proper monastery. But they were not left to enjoy their new home for long.

On June seventeenth Father Gregory Yanknecht, Minister Provincial of the German Province of the Sacred Heart in St. Louis, visited them. On July twenty-fifth he called a second time, and informed them that they were to leave New Orleans and go to Cleveland. The Provincial gave no reason for his action, and Magdalen asked no questions. On August ninth, Magdalen and her three companions arrived in Cleveland and again set about turning a house into a convent. The location had the advantage of being near Franciscan Friars, but once again disappointment was to be the sisters' lot.

Soon after her arrival in Cleveland, Father Gregory told Magdalen that German Colettine nuns, who had been exiled from their convent because of the Kulturkampf, would soon be joining the Cleveland Poor Clare community. Nothing more was said about the matter until the evening of December fourteenth, when Father Gregory called and told Magdalen that five nuns would arrive the next day, that the two communities were to become one, and that all the nuns were to conform to the customs and language of the German Colettines.

The newcomers were welcomed the next day, but all was not peaceful. The two groups were different in too many ways, and the inevitable happened. When informed of Father Gregory's insistence on conformity to the practices of the German nuns, the minister general advised Magdalen to go to another religious community for the time being and investigate the possibilities of returning to New Orleans or starting afresh elsewhere. On February 27, 1878, Magdalen and Constance left Cleveland. The three novices who had received the habit there chose to follow them. The records of the Cleveland Colettines state that the two groups parted "in charity and friendship, exchanging many a little token of good will." In fact, during her lifetime Magdalen insisted on having a Sister Mary Coletta in the community to show that there were no hard feelings.

Although Magdalen did not fully approve, she respected Constance's wish to divide the group in an attempt to raise funds. Constance with one novice and a postulant went to the West Coast in search of benefactors, while Magdalen and the other two novices went to New York for the same purpose. On her way to the West Coast, Constance stopped in Omaha where she met the Catholic philanthropist. John Creighton. She wrote back to Magdalen about the possibility of making a foundation in Omaha with Mr. Creighton's backing in such glowing terms that Magdalen contacted Bishop James O'Connor to inquire whether he would welcome the Poor Clares into his diocese. A friend since their Philadelphia days, the bishop responded that he was not opposed to the foundation, but hastened to point out that he was not in a position to help them financially.

Mother Magdalen with the two novices, Clare Bailey and Mary Francis Moran, arrived in Omaha on August 15, 1878. With the aid of Mr. Creighton a foundation was eventually made at Omaha, but there were many things still to be suffered before that foundation became permanent.

During her return to Omaha from the West Coast, Constance was fleeced, as Magdalen had feared she would be, by an unscrupulous person to whom she had entrusted her collections. Before its completion, the new monastery was twice destroyed by tornadoes. To add to all this, money was never in abundance, and the sisters often went without what most people consider the necessities of life. But the sufferings of the previous three years were turned into joy when the document erecting the first Poor Clare monastery of the Primitive Observance in the United States was issued at Rome on November 15, 1881.

In 1885, Mother Mary Magdalen was able to accomplish the first "return" of the Poor Clares to cities where they had earlier attempted to establish monasteries.

On June sixteenth, she and two other sisters left Omaha for New Orleans. One of her companions was Sister Mary Francis Moran, who had entered when Magdalen first came to New Orleans in 1877. Mrs. Tujague, Sister Mary Francis's devoted aunt, had never ceased working for the Poor Clares' return.

Her labors were rewarded when her niece came back to New Orleans as superior of the community.

The deepest grievance of all awaited Magdalen upon her return to Omaha, where, because of misunderstandings and circumstances too involved to explain in this article, she and Constance were placed under interdict and the Holy Eucharist removed from their chapel. While the charges were being investigated, the Bentivoglio sisters were taken to the Sisters of Mercy, and Sister Nativity was appointed temporarily to replace Magdalen as abbess. By September 1888 the matter was cleared up and Magdalen and Constance returned to their monastery. It was the feast of Our Lady of Mercy when they were exonerated, so they received permission to celebrate that feast in a special way each year. They were royally welcomed by all the sisters.

Magdalen's last foundation was made at Evansville, Indiana in 1897. This monastery was also the scene of her death, which took place on August 18, 1905. When she expired, a miraculous light shone on her face, and her body was found incorrupt when exhumed in 1907 and again in 1932. The cause of her beatification was taken to Rome in 1931.

Venerable Father Nelson Baker (1842-1936)

Who was Father Nelson Baker? To some, he was a shrewd businessman, driven to succeed by remarkable vision. To others, he was a protector, an advocate for the rights and well-being of all people -- regardless of ability, race, or creed. And to others, he was a spiritual leader of incredible faith, giving all in the name of Our Lady of Victory. But every one can agree that he was a man like very few.

Recently named Buffalo's "Most influential citizen of the 20th century" by the Buffalo News, Father Nelson Baker was (and continues to be) well known by tens of thousands as a saintly man. By many, the humble priest is simply known as "the Padre of the Poor." He opened the doors of his institutions to poor and needy children, unwed mothers and their babies, and anyone else who needed a helping hand. Around the turn of the 20th century, his Infant Home accepted unwanted babies and provided a safe environment for unwed mothers. His General Hospital served the surrounding community, and his orphanage for boys took in unwanted children, showed them love, and taught them how to succeed in a cruel world. Prior to Father Baker's arrival, the "Limestone Hill" Institutions (as they were known) served 238 boys, just 18 years later, that number nearly tripled (644).

But Father Baker's most visible accomplishment was the Basilica of Our Lady of Victory dedicated to Jesus' Mother as Victorious Queen. The shrine -- built for nearly three million dollars and paid for entirely through donations -- was consecrated on May 26, 1926, and capped off Father Baker's 50th year in the priesthood and 84th year of life! The "Padre of the Poor" would be called upon time and time again through the last 10 years of his life as the Great Depression ravaged Western New York. Before passing away at the age of 94 in the very hospital he built, it was estimated that his institutions provided stability and care to hundreds of thousands of needy children, youth, and adults.

Father Baker's legacy continues to this day in many ways. His social programs have evolved into Baker Victory Services, which provide care to more than 2,500 children each and every day, his Hospital continues to offer services to the area, his Homes of Charity provide the critical funds necessary to continue his social programs through donations, and his wonderful Basilica enjoyed its 75th Anniversary in 2001. In addition, the Catholic Church named Father Baker "Servant of God" in 1987, the first step towards declaring him a saint. Currently, his cause for canonization, overseen by his third successor, Msgr. Robert C. Wurtz, is under review by Vatican officials in the hopes of beatifying the humble priest in the very near future.

The story of Father Nelson Henry Baker is a special one. It is a tale of unconditional love, unsurpassed faith, and an unshakable belief in a better life for all of God's children.

Venerable Fr. Solanus Casey (Incorrupt) (1870-1957)

Fr. Solanus Casey, Capuchin Franciscan, was born Bernard Francis Casey on November 25, 1870 on a farm near Oak Grove, Wisconsin. He was the sixth child in a family of ten boys and six girls born to Irish immigrant parents. Bernard left the farm to work throughout Wisconsin and Minnesota as a logger, hospital orderly, street car operator, and prison guard.

At the age of 21 Bernard entered St. Francis High School Seminary in Milwaukee to study for the diocesan priesthood. Five years later he contemplated a religious order. Invested in the Capuchin Order at Detroit in 1897, he received the religious name of Solanus.

After his ordination in 1904, Fr. Solanus spent 20 years in New York, Harlem, and Yonkers. In 1924 he was assigned to St. Bonaventure Monastery in Detroit where he worked for 20 years.

Fr. Solanus spent his life in the service of people. At the monastery door as porter he met thousands of people from every age and walk of life and earned recognition as "The Doorkeeper." He was always ready to listen to anyone at any time, day or night.

During his final illness, he remarked, "I'm offering my suffering that all might be one. If only I could see the conversion of the whole world." His last conscious act was sitting up in bed and saying, "I give my soul to Jesus Christ." He died at the age of 86 on July 31, 1957 at the same day and hour of his First Holy Mass 53 years earlier.

Venerable Fr. Walter Ciszek 1(904-1984)

Before there was an Armistice Day, Walter Ciszek was born on November 11, 1904, and lived through a crucified century. Death came gracefully in 1984 on the feast of the Immaculate Conception.

In boyhood he was a bully in a gang on the gritty streets of Shenandoah, Pennsylvania, and Ciszek’s Polish immigrant father dragged him to the police station, hoping to put him into a reform school. Everyone thought he was joking when the eighth grader announced that he would enter the Polish minor seminary. The seminarian swam in an icy lake and rose before dawn to run five miles, pummeling the body like his forebear in holy belligerence, Saul of Tarsus. A biography of St. Stanislaus Kostka inspired him to go to the Bronx in 1928, where he told the Jesuits he wanted to join up.

Guileless Ciszek then informed his superiors that God wanted him to go to Russia, where in ten years more than 150,000 Russian Orthodox priests had been wiped out. They sent him to study in Rome at the “Russicum,” the Jesuits’ Russian center, and finally in 1937 he celebrated his first Mass in the Byzantine rite. Aiming to infiltrate Russia through Poland, he taught ethics in a seminary in Albertyn. But in 1939 Hitler invaded from the west and then the Russians came from the east, despoiling the seminary, and so the young alter Christus was on the cross between two thieves. In 1940 the Ukrainian Archbishop of Lvov permitted him to enter Russia, and he headed for the Ural Mountains, a two-week trip in a box car with 25 men. While hauling logs in a lumber camp, he said Mass furtively in the forest. Secret police arrested him as a Vatican spy when they found his Mass wine, which they called nitroglycerine, and kept him in a cell 900 feet square for two weeks with 100 other men.

After six more months, beaten with rubber truncheons, starved, and drugged, he signed a confession, and this he called one of the darkest moments of his life. On July 26, 1942, he was sentenced to 15 years’ hard labor, starting with five years of solitary confinement in Moscow’s hideous Lubyanka prison, and then off to Siberia. After a slow 2,500-mile trip to Krasnoyarsk in a sweltering boxcar, he was sent on a barge to Norilsk, 200 miles north of the Arctic Circle, and worked 12-hour days shoveling coal into freighters, with rags for shoes. In hushed tones he said Mass for Polish prisoners using a vodka glass for a chalice and wine made from stolen raisins. Having been transferred to work in the coal mines for a year, he became a construction worker in 1947, returning to the mines in 1953.

Release came in 1955 and he got news to his sisters for the first time since 1939 that he was alive. In Krasnoyarsk he quickly established several parishes. Then came four years just south in Abakan, working as an auto mechanic. In 1963 the KGB hauled him back to Moscow and handed him over to the American consulate in exchange for two Soviet agents. As the plane flew past the Kremlin, he related, “Slowly, carefully, I made the sign of the cross over the land that I was leaving.”   In New York, undeterred by arthritis and cardiac ailments, he gave spiritual direction at Fordham University in a residence now named for him, writing his monumental books With God in Russia and He Leadeth Me. One summer day I was driven by some parish teenagers to a barbeque with him in New Rochelle. We arrived in the quiet suburban neighborhood in a noisily combustive van painted in psychedelic designs, used by the boys for their rock band. My last sight of him was in the garden, bouncing a small girl on his knee. His hair was very white and his radiance was not of the summer sun. “These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb” (Rv 7:14).

Venerable Terence Cardinal Cooke (1921-1983)

Cardinal Archbishop Terence J. Cooke was born in New York City on Mar. 1, 1921, the youngest of three children of Michael and Margaret Gannon Cooke, who were both natives of County Galway, Ireland. He was named after Terence MacSwiney, the nationalist Lord Mayor of Cork who had died six weeks earlier from his celebrated hunger strike protesting British occupation policies in Ireland.  When he was five years old from the Morningside Heights of Manhattan to the northeast Bronx where he attended St. Benedict’s parochial school.  After the death of his mother in 1930, her sister Mary Gannon, joined the family to help rear Terence and his older brother and sister. He decided to study for the priesthood upon graduation from elementary school in 1934 and enrolled in Cathederal College, minor seminary of the Archdiocese of New York.  In 1940 he entered St. Joseph’s seminary, Dunwoodie, and was ordained a priest on Dec. 1, 1945, Francis Cardinal Spellman in St. Patrick’s Cathedral.

Immediately after ordination Fr. Cooke was assigned to graduate studies in social work, first at the University of Chicago, then in the National Catholic School of Social Service at the Catholic University of America, where he obtained a master’s degree in 1949.  From 1949 to 1954 he was assigned to the Youth Division of Catholic Charities; in 1954 he became procurator of St. Joseph’s Seminary where his administrative efficiency brought him to the attention of Cardinal Spellman, who selected him as his secretary in 1957.

Thereafter he advanced from vice chancellor (1958) to chancellor (1961) to vicar general and auxiliary bishop (1965).  At Spellman’s death in Dec. 1967, Cooke was the youngest of ten auxiliary bishops.  His appointment as the seventh archbishop of New York on Mar. 8, 1968, was unexpected (especially to Archbishop John Maguire, the coadjutor without right of succession) and was widely attributed to Spellman’s influence.  On April 4, 1968, Cooke also succeeded Spellman as military vicar for the United States Armed Forces. He was appointed to Cardinal in April 28, 1969.

Archbishop of New York-Cooke became archbishop of New York during a tumultuous period of civil rights demonstrations and student protests provoked by the Vietnam War.  On the day of his installation, April 4, 1968, Sr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated, leading to riots in many American cities.  That evening Cooke left a reception to travel to Harlem and plead for racial peace.  Cooke also had to face the unsettling aftermath of Vatican II.  Between 1967 and 1983 the number of diocesan priests declined in New York form 1, 108 to 777.  The total Catholic population remained the same but that was because of large influx of Hispanic immigrants.  Women religious fell from 8,955 to 5,178.  The number of infant baptisms fell from 50,000 to 31,000 per year and church weddings declined from 15,000 to 8,200 per year. 

The age of expansion had ended by the time Cooke took over. Cardinal Spellman had established forty-five parishes while Cooke had a net gain of four.  The diocese needed financial expertise and he excelled in this role.  He created the Inter-Parish Finance Commission, which levied assessment on all parishes and used income to subsidize the poor parishes.  Only 31 of the 305 Catholic elementary schools were forced to close due to enrollment dropping off by about one half in the diocese.  His financial expertise greatly attributed to the maintaining of the schools.  He also appointed the first black and Hispanic auxiliary bishops in the history of the archdiocese, and in his capacity as military vicar he continued to visit military troops overseas as Spellman had done.

 
Critic complained that Cooke’s financial wizardry was not matched by comparable leadership skills or long-term vision.  In such areas as the Hispanic apostolate and the academic quality of the diocesan seminary, Cooke was faulted for failing to continue the innovative policies of his predecessor.  He was sensitive to criticism from the secular press and tended to avoid open confrontation on controversial issues. In public he displayed a cheery smile and exuded an unquenchable optimism.  With the clergy he was affable but a stickler for ecclesial propriety. He had a native ability to deflect a discussion of substantive issues into inoffensive pleasantries.  Due to his influence his diocese was spared polarization that occurred in many other diocese due to Vatican II.

In Aug. 1983 Cooke announced that he was terminally ill with cancer, a lymphoma condition for which he had been secretly receiving medical treatment for the previous eight years.  During the following six weeks, his faith and courage made a deep impression on many New Yorkers.  After his death on Oct. 6, 1983, huge crowds filed past his bier in St. Patrick’s Cathedral and over 900 priests attended his funeral.  He was buried under the main altar of St. Patrick’s Cathedral.  His cause for canonization has been opened and Fr. Benedict Groeschel, is the postulator for the cause.

Venerable Mother Marianne Cope (1838-1918)

Barbara Koob (now officially "Cope") was born on 23 January 1838 in SE Hessen, West Germany. She was one of 10 children born to Peter Koob, a farmer, and Barbara Witzenbacher Koob. The year after Barbara's birth, the family moved to the United States.

The Koob family found a home in Utica, in the State of New York, where they became members of St Joseph's Parish and where the children attended the parish school.

Sisters of St Francis

Although Barbara felt called to Religious life at an early age, her vocation was delayed for nine years because of family obligations. As the oldest child at home, she went to work in a factory after completing eighth grade in order to support her family when her father became ill.

Finally, in the summer of 1862 at age 24, Barbara entered the Sisters of St Francis in Syracuse, N.Y. On 19 November 1862 she received the religious habit and the name "Sr Marianne", and the following year she made her religious profession and began serving as a teacher and principal in several elementary schools in New York State.

She joined the Order in Syracuse with the intention of teaching, but her life soon became a series of administrative appointments. God had other plans

As a member of the governing boards of her Religious Community in the 1860s, she participated in the establishment of two of the first hospitals in the central New York area.

In 1870, she began a new ministry as a nurse-administrator at St Joseph's in Syracuse, N.Y., where she served as head administrator for six years. During this time she put her gifts of intelligence and people skills to good use as a facilitator, demonstrating the energy of a woman motivated by God alone.

Although Mother Marianne was often criticized for accepting for treatment "outcast" patients such as alcoholics, she became well-known and loved in the central New York area for her kindness, wisdom and down-to-earth practicality.

In 1883, Mother Marianne, now the Provincial Mother in Syracuse, received a letter from a Catholic priest asking for help in managing hospitals and schools in the Hawaiian Islands, and mainly to work with leprosy patients. The letter touched Mother Marianne's heart and she enthusiastically responded: "I am hungry for the work and I wish with all my heart to be one of the chosen ones, whose privilege it will be to sacrifice themselves for the salvation of the souls of the poor Islanders.... I am not afraid of any disease, hence, it would be my greatest delight even to minister to the abandoned "lepers'".

She and six other Sisters of St Francis arrived in Honolulu in November 1883. With Mother Marianne as supervisor, their main task was to manage the Kaka'ako Branch Hospital on Oahu, which served as a receiving station for patients with Hansen's disease gathered from all over the islands.

The Sisters quickly set to work cleaning the hospital and tending to its 200 patients. By 1885, they had made major improvements to the living conditions and treatment of the patients.

In November of that year, they also founded the Kapi'olani Home inside the hospital compound, established to care for the healthy daughters of Hansen's disease patients at Kaka'ako and Kalawao. The unusual decision to open a home for healthy children on leprosy hospital premises was made because only the Sisters would care for those so closely related to people with the dreaded disease.

Mother Marianne met Fr Damien de Veuster (today Blessed Damien is known as the "Apostle to Lepers") for the first time in January 1884, when he was in apparent good health. Two years later, in 1886, after he had been diagnosed with Hansen's disease, Mother Marianne alone gave hospitality to the outcast priest upon hearing that his illness made him an unwelcome visitor to Church and Government leaders in Honolulu.

In 1887, when a new Government took charge in Hawaii, its officials decided to close the Oahu Hospital and receiving station and to reinforce the former alienation policy. The unanswered question:  Who would care for the sick, who once again would be sent to a settlement for exiles on the Kalaupapa Peninsula on the island of Molokai?

In 1888, Mother Marianne again responded to the plea for help and said:  "We will cheerfully accept the work...". She arrived in Kalaupapa several months before Fr Damien's death together with Sr Leopoldina Burns and Sr Vincentia McCormick, and was able to console the ailing priest by assuring him that she would provide care for the patients at the Boys' Home at Kalawao that he had founded.

Together the three Sisters ran the Bishop Home for 103 Girls and the Home for Boys. The workload was extreme and the burden at times seemed overwhelming. In moments of despair, Sr Leopoldina reflected:  "How long, O Lord, must I see only those who are sick and covered with leprosy?".

Mother Marianne's invaluable example of never-failing optimism, serenity and trust in God inspired hope in those around her and allayed the Sisters' fear of catching leprosy. She taught her Sisters that their primary duty was "to make life as pleasant and as comfortable as possible for those of our fellow creatures whom God has chosen to afflict with this terrible disease...".

Mother Marianne never returned to Syracuse. She died in Hawaii on 9 August 1918 of natural causes and was buried on the grounds of Bishop Home.

Venerable Fr. Emil Kapaun (1916-1951)

Father Kapaun, born in Pilsen, Diocese of Wichita, Kansas on Holy Thursday, April 20, 1916, entered the U.S. Army Chaplain Corps in 1944. Separated from the service in 1946, he reentered the Army in 1948 and was sent to Japan the following year. Then, in July 1950 he was ordered to Korea, On November 2 of that same year he was taken a prisoner of war.

In the seven months in prison, Father Kapaun spent himself in heroic service to his fellow prisoners without regard to race, creed or color. To this there is testimony of men of all faiths. Ignoring his own ill health, he nursed the sick and wounded until a blood clot in his leg prevented his daily rounds. Moved to a hospital, but denied medications, his death soon followed on May 23, 1951.

Excerpts from a pamphlet written by 1st Lt. Ray M. (Mike) Dowe, Jr.

He wore the cross of the Chaplain branch instead of the crossed rifles of the infantry, but he was, I think, the best foot soldier I ever knew, and the kindest. His name was Emil Joseph Kapaun, and he was a priest of the Roman Catholic Church. The men he served in the prison camps of Korea didn't care whether he was Catholic or Baptist, Lutheran or Presbyterian. To all of them, Catholic, Protestant and Jew alike, and to men who professed no formal faith at all, he was simply "FATHER," and each of them, when in trouble came, drew courage and hope and strength from him

He's dead now, murdered by the Red Chinese, and his body lies in an unmarked grave somewhere along the Yalu. The hundreds of men who knew and loved him have not forgotten him. I write this so folks at home can know what kind of a man he was, and what he did for us, and how he died.

The first thing I want to make clear is this, he was a priest of the Church, and a man of great piety, but there was nothing ethereal about him, nothing soft or unctious or holier than thou. He wore his piety in his heart. Outwardly he was all GI, tough of body, rough of speech sometimes, full of the wry humor of the combat soldier. In a camp where men had to steal or starve, he was the most accomplished food thief of them all. In a prison whose inmates hated their communist captors with a bone deep hate, he was the most unbending enemy of Communism, and when they tried to brainwash him, he had the guts to tell them to their faces that they lied. He pitied the Reds for their delusions, but he preached no doctrine of turn-the-other-cheek. I came upon him once sitting in the sunshine by the road. There was a smile on his face and a look of happiness in his eyes.

I hated to break in on his meditations, but I needed cheering, so I asked him" What are you thinking of, Father?" "Of that happy day," he said, "when the first American tank rolls down the road, then I'm going to catch that little so and so, Comrade Sun, and kick his butt right over the compound fence."

Father always spoke in parallels, relating the sufferings that Christ endured to those we were forced to bear. As he spoke, the agony in the garden, the road to Calvary, the Crucifixion, became very real to us who bore our own crosses of blows, and cold, and illness, and starvation. Christ endured, he told us, and we, too, must endure, for the day of our resurrection from the tomb of the prison camp would surely come, as surely as the stone was rolled away from the sepulchre. It is because of these sermons, which gave hope and courage, and food he stole for us, and the care he gave us when we were sick, many of us came back home who never would have survived our long ordeal without him.

Venerable Fr. Michael McGivney (1852-1890)

The founder of the Knights of Columbus , he was ordained in Baltimore's historic Cathedral of the Assumption by Archbishop (later Cardinal) James Gibbons on December 22, 1877. A few days later, with his widowed mother present, he said his first Mass at Immaculate Conception Church in Waterbury.

Father McGivney began his priestly ministry on Christmas Day in 1877 as curate at St. Mary's Church in New Haven. It was the city's first parish. A new stone church had been built, after the old one burned, on one of New Haven's finest residential streets, Hillhouse Avenue. There was neighborhood objection which even the New York Times noted in 1879, under the headline: "How An Aristocratic Avenue Was Blemished By A Roman Church Edifice." So Father McGivney's priestly ministry in New Haven began with tension and defensiveness among the working-class Irish families he served.

One of the responsibilities of St. Mary's priests was pastoral care of inmates of the city jail. In a notable case, a 21-year-old Irishman, while drunk, shot and killed a police officer. James (Chip) Smith was tried for first-degree murder in 1881, convicted and sentenced to be hung. Father McGivney visited him daily. After a special Mass on the day of execution, the priest's grief was intense. The young offender comforted him: "Father, your saintly ministrations have enabled me to meet death without a tremor. Do not fear for me, I must not break down now."

Father McGivney worked closely with the young people of St. Mary's parish, holding catechism classes and organizing a total abstinence society to fight alcoholism. In 1881 he began to explore with various laymen the idea of a Catholic, fraternal benefit society. In an era when parish clubs and fraternal societies had wide popular appeal, the young priest felt there should be some way to strengthen religious faith and at the same time provide for the financial needs of families overwhelmed by illness or death of the breadwinner.

He discussed this concept with Bishop Lawrence McMahon of Hartford, and received his approval. He traveled to Boston to talk with the Massachusetts Catholic Order of Foresters, and traveled to Brooklyn to consult the Catholic Benevolent Legion. He met with other priests of the diocese. Wherever he could, he sought information that would help the Catholic laymen to organize themselves into a benefit society.

People who knew Father McGivney in this period were impressed by his energy and intensity. Father Gordian Daley later recalled, "I saw him but once, and yet I remember this pale, beautiful face as if I saw it only yesterday. It was a 'priest's face' and that explains everything. It was a face of wonderful repose. There was nothing harsh in that countenance although there was everything that was strong." William Geary, one of the Order's charter members, said that at the first council meeting in 1882, he was "acclaimed as founder by 24 men with hearts full of joy and thanksgiving, recognizing that without his optimism, his will to succeed, his counsel and advice they would have failed."

Father McGivney had suggested Sons of Columbus as a name for the Order. This would bind Catholicism and Americanism together through the faith and bold vision of the New World's discoverer.

The word "knights" replaced "sons" because key members of the organizing group who were Irish-born Civil War veterans felt it would help to apply a noble ritual in support of the emerging cause of Catholic civil liberty.

In the first public reference to the Order on February 8, 1882, the New Haven Morning Journal and Couriersaid the Knights of Columbus' initial meeting had been held the night before.

On March 29, the Connecticut legislature granted a charter to the Knights of Columbus, formally establishing it as a legal corporation. The Order's principles in 1882 were "Unity" and "Charity." The concepts of "Fraternity" and "Patriotism" were added later.

Never robust in health, Father McGivney was suddenly stricken with a serious case of pneumonia in January 1890. It hung on. Various treatments for consumptive illness were tried, but his decline persisted. The young priest lost physical strength just as the Order he founded was moving toward new vitality.

On August 14, 1890, Father Michael J. McGivney died at the age of 38. In his 13 brief, busy years as a priest, Father McGivney's piety and compassion had won the love of those he served as curate and pastor. His Christian inspiration, leadership and administrative drive had brought him the loyalty and affection of thousands who knew him as the founder of the Knights of Columbus.

From the moment he launched it, the organization fortified Catholics in their faith, offered them ways to greater financial security in a sometimes hostile world, and strengthened them in self-esteem.

Remarkably developed from its simple beginnings in a church basement, the Knights of Columbus today combines Catholic fraternalism and one of the most successful American insurance enterprises. The four towers of the international headquarters symbolize the Order's worldwide commitment to charity, unity, fraternity and patriotism. More than 12,000 fraternal councils are active in 13 countries.

Nearly 1.7 million Knights contribute about $130 million and  61 million hours of volunteer service to charitable causes each year. And—as a particular result of the Order's multi-faceted services to the Church—the board of directors in 1988 conducted formal business of the Order for the first time in a room named for the Knights of Columbus within the ancient St. Peter's Basilica in Rome.

Venerable Father Samuel Mazzuchelli O.P. (1806-1864)

Father Samuel Charles Mazzuchelli, O.P. (November 4, 1806 - February 23, 1864 ) was a pioneer Catholic missionary who helped in bringing the church to the Iowa, Illinois, and Wisconsin tri-state areas. He founded a number of parishes in the area. He acted as the architect for a number of the parish buildings.

Father Mazzuchelli was born in Milan, Italy on November 4, 1806. He became a member of the Dominican Order. Prior to arriving in the Dubuque area, he worked for a time in Wisconsin. When he first arrived in the United  States, he spoke almost no English. During his time in Wisconsin, he faced a number of challenges, such as hostility from other Christian denominations.

Mazzuchelli arrived in the mid 1830's to what would later become the city of Dubuque, Iowa. While there, he reorganized the parish and named it Saint Raphael's - which later became the Cathedral parish when the Dubuque Diocese was formed in 1837. He assisted Bishop Mathias Loras during the first few years after the founding of the Diocese. He also worked quite extensively in what would eventually become the Diocese of Madison. He named three Catholic parishes after the three Archangels. These were Saint Raphael's at Dubuque, Saint Michael's at Galena, Illinois, and Saint Gabriel's at Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin. And in 1848, he founded St Clara Academy (today known as the Dominican University of Illinois), a frontier school for young women. In 1849, he founded the Sinsinawa Dominican Sisters.

Many remembered him as a kind and gentlemanly priest. Fr. Mazzuchelli was able to break down the cultural barriers that existed at the time and appeal to many different ethnic groups. The Irish he ministered to called him Father Matthew Kelly. He died on February 23, 1864 after contracting an illness from a sick parishoner that he had visited.

Early in April 2006, Italian doctors charged by the Vatican with determining the validity of miracles decided after careful study that the curing of Robert Uselmann of cancer was indeed a miracle. Uselmann, a resident of Madison, Wisconsin had went to Sinsinawa Mound with his family in 2001 to pray Mazzuchelli for his assistance in curing him of cancer. While there he prayed with the Sisters and also prayed with Mazzuchelli's penance chain. Uselmann would later find that he had been cured of the cancer, and it was established that there was no medical explanation for this cure.

As a result, Mazzuchelli is now eligible for beatification, the next step in the process of naming a Saint within the church. For canonization to occur, another miracle due to the intercession of Mazzuchelli would need to occur, and would also need to be verified by the Vatican's Congregation for the Causes of the Saints.

Venerable Seminarian Frank Parater (1897-1920)

Francis Joseph Parater was born into a devout Catholic family on October 10, 1897, in the city of Richmond, Virginia. His parents were Captain Francis Joseph Parater, Sr. and his sec ond wife, Mary Raymond. Francis Sr.'s first wife died as did several children she gave birth to by him.  Mary Raymond was raised as a devout Episcopalian and communicant at Saint John's Episcopal Church on Church Hill (where Patrick Henry made his famous speech). Since, at the time of her marriage, she agreed to raise any children born to them as Catholics, she decided she could do that best by becoming Catholic herself.

Frank Jr. was baptized at Saint Patrick's Church on Church Hill, the highest of Richmond's seven hills. He grew up in a close knit family and in the large Catholic Community that resided in the Church Hill neighborhood at the time. Frank's father was a city employee who cared for the park across from their very modest home. He also took care of the garden at the Monastery of the Visitation located two blocks from their home. From their home Frank could easily walk to the monastery for daily Mass where he served as an altar boy from the day of his first communion until he left Richmond for college.

Frank was educated at the Xaverian Brother's School (currently Saint Patrick's School) and at Benedictine High School in Richmond. He graduated in 1917, top in his class and valedictorian. In his late teens, Frank became very active in the Boy Scouts of America. His involvement was so exemplary that he was asked to serve in roles of leadership even at his young age.  As a scout, he achieved the rank of Eagle.  A remarkable young man, Frank was known for his ideals and practical judgment.  At a time when the Catholic faith was not considered to be a social asset, Frank was well thought of by Catholics and non-Catholics alike. In fact, newspaper accounts note his achievements, his natural talents and his gifts of heart and mind. His vocation decision to study for the priesthood, his journey to Rome, his untimely death and his Last Will and Testament received press coverage far beyond what one might have expected for the times.

In 1917, Frank began studies for the priesthood at Belmont Abbey Seminary College in North Carolina. He continued to lead a very devout life as is detailed in the journal he kept while there. His stated goal was: "To strive by every possible means to become a pure and worthy priest, an alterus Christus [sic]." During this period, he continued to go to Mass and receive Holy Communion daily, prayed the Rosary and Memorare daily, and went to confession weekly in accord with a Rule of Life he had drawn up for himself. He had an abiding sense that "…the Sacred Heart never fails those that love Him." The Benedictine Fathers made him aware of the spirituality of the Little Flower, Saint Therese of the Child Jesus, O.C.D. While at college seminary, Frank madethe decision to study for the diocesan priesthood. This decision was made with the assistance of his spiritual director and after discussions with the Right Reverend Denis J. O'Connell, D.D., Bishop of Richmond. Frank decided that there was such a great need for priestly ministry in his native Virginia that he would forego his desire for monastic life in favor of direct service to the people of God.

During the summers, while at Belmont Seminary College, he was active in the Knights of Columbus summer wartime activities for youth and was director of the summer camp for the Boy Scouts of America. The leaders of the Scouts saw such virtue and ideals in Frank that they wanted him to serve as a summer camp director supervising those who were his seniors. He was considered a "four-ply scout", exceptional in every way. In the fall of 1919, Bishop O'Connell, who had been a former Rector of the Pontifical North American College in Rome, sent Frank to study at the North American College. Frank was instantly popular among his fellow seminarians and displayed a warm sense of humor and cheer as he continued to deepen his spiritual life. In December he wrote an Act of Oblation to the Sacred Heart of Jesus which was sealed and marked to be read only in the event of his death. Frank expressed his motivation in making his offering in this way:

I have nothing to leave or to give but my life and this I have consecrated to the Sacred Heart to be used as He wills...This is what I live for and in case of death what I die for. Since my childhood, I have wanted to die for God and my neighbor. Shall I have this grace? I do not know, but if I go on living, I shall live for this same purpose; every action of my life hereis offered to God for the spread and success of the Catholic Church in Virginia.  I shall be of more service to my diocese in Heaven than I can ever be on earth.

In late January 1920, Frank Parater contracted rheumatism that developed into rheumatic fever causing him tremendous suffering. He was taken to the hospital of the Blue Nuns on January 27th. The spiritual director of the college, Father Mahoney, explained to Frank that his illness was grave, as he administered Last Rites. Frank wished to get out of bed and kneel on the floor to receive Holy Communion as Viaticum, but was prevented from doing so. With great devotion, and unafraid of death, he knelt on the bed and made his last Holy Communion. On February 6, Monsignor Charles A. O'Hern, rector of the college, offered the Mass of the Sacred Heart for Frank. Frank Parater died the following day.  Less than three months after his arrival in Rome this promising young seminarian was buried in the College Mausoleum at Campo Verano. His Act of Oblation was later discovered in his room when a fellow seminarian, Frank Byrne of the Diocese of Richmond, was tasked with  gathering Frank’s personal belongings. The Act of Oblation caught the attention of Pope Benedict XV, who had it published in the Vatican’s Newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano, and also of Pope Pius XI who “had it copied for his own edification.”

In 1920, both Richmond newspapers and Bishop O'Connell praised the virtues of the deceased seminarian, the later holding him up as a model for all seminarians. Decades later in the 1960's, a subsequent Richmond Bishop who had been a fellow student of Frank’s, the Most Reverend John Joyce Russell named a summer camp in honor of Frank Parater. Bishop Russell would later procure various items from Frank’ family to be kept in the diocesan archives.

In 2001, the Most Reverend Walter F. Sullivan having received authorization from the Holy See, initiated the cause of canonization for Frank Parater by establishing a Tribunal to examine the holiness of his life.  Father J. Scott Duarte, J.C.D., a priest of the Diocese of Richmond, is the present Postulator for the canonization cause of the Servant of God, Seminarian Francis J. Parater.

Venerable Father Patrick Peyton (1909-1992)

Fr Patrick Peyton was born on 9th January 1909 in the townland of Carracastle in Attymass parish. He was a member of a family of nine children. At the age of 19 he and his brother, Tom, emigrated to the United States to join with their sister, Nellie. His wish from boyhood was to be ordained a priest but his family in Ireland were unable to meet the cost of his education.

In the United States he returned to full-time education and studied for the priesthood. During his final year in the seminary he was diagnosed as having tuberculosis. At that time tuberculosis was incurable. Fr Patrick was very weak and was given little hope by the medical team of recovering to full health. Fr Patrick had great faith and prayed to the Blessed Virgin Mary for a recovery to health. His prayers were answered and his health began to improve to the amazement of the medical profession. He was ordained to the priesthood on 15th June 1941.

Fr Peyton was so grateful to the Blessed Virgin Mary for his health that he, with the permission of his superiors, began the Prayer Crusade which took him all over the world preaching the importance of prayer, especially family prayer. He staged hundreds of radio and television shows with many of the famous movie stars of Broadway and Hollywood taking part. He was the founder of "Family Rosary" and "Family Theatre".

His famous slogan was: "The family that prays together, stays together."

Venerable Pierre Toussaint (1776-1853)

Pierre Toussaint was born in 1778 to devout Catholic family of slaves in Haiti. At the age of 19, he came to New York with the family that owned him when they fled their island home following a slave uprising.

Though it was highly unusual for the times, his masters, the Bérards, taught him to read and write. Furthermore, he was apprenticed to be a hair stylist, where he developed a devoted clientele among the city's social elite. Among his regular customers were the wife of Alexander Hamilton and the daughters of General Philip Schuyler, the man who had defeated the British at Saratoga.

"Some of the most pleasant hours I pass," a client remarked, "are in conversing with Toussaint while he is dressing my hair. I anticipate it as a daily recreation." These women confided in him because they knew his discretion. When a customer would ask him about another woman, he would reply, "Toussaint dresses hair; he is no news journal.:

He helped them see that the solutions to many of their problems could be found in the Gospels, and to realize that certain situations could only be changed through prayer and trust in God. He was never timid in encouraging them to pray, or in telling them that he would pray for them. For women whose lives were often superficial, this added a needed spiritual dimension.

Because of his position, Toussaint was able to earn an income. He could have used this money to buy his freedom. He rarely spent anything on himself; instead, he devoted what little he had to supporting the Church, taking care of the poor and orphaned, and buying the freedom of other slaves.

After Monsieur Bérard died, his widow offered to grant Toussaint his freedom, but Toussaint refused. Instead, he supported the woman until she died since she had been left destitute by husband's poor investments and the loss of the family's plantation in Haiti. Toussaint even postponed his wedding until after Madame Bérard's death, and at 33 married Juliette, a fellow Haitian who had faithfully waited for him. They had no children of their own, but adopted Toussaint's niece, Euphemia, and sheltered many orphans, refugees, and other unfortunate people in their tiny flat.

He founded, with St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, one of New York City's first orphanages, and he helped raise funds for the city's first cathedral. During an epidemic of yellow fever, while thousands fled the city, Toussaint stayed behind to nurse the sick. After visiting a lady who had recently lost a close relative, an acquaintance asked, "What did you say to her?" He replied, "Nothing. I could only take her hand and weep with her, and then I went away; there was nothing to be said."

He was fiercely proud of his race, and helped other blacks whenever possible. This included supporting a religious order for women in Baltimore. He and his wife also donated funds for New York's first Catholic school for blacks on Canal Street. His first biographer wrote, "He wished to ennoble his brethren by making them feel their moral responsibility as black men, not as aping the habits and conversations of white men."

Toussaint's saintly behavior was a direct result of his devotion to his religion. "My friends," he was fond of saying, "Jesus can give you nothing so precious as himself, as his own mind. May this be in you. Do not think that any faith in him can do you good if you do not try to be pure and true like him." He attended 6:00 a.m. Mass every day for 60 years. After this he would do his chores for the Berard family, and then walk to his clients' homes since he was not allowed to ride in carriages due to the color of his skin.

He died in 1853 at 87, outliving both his wife and daughter. Many mourned his passing because even then they recognized him for his holiness. In fact, one of his clients, Mary Ann Schuyler, called him "my saint." "I have known," she said, "Christians who were not gentlemen or gentlemen who were not Christians - but one man I know who is both - and that man is Black."

The cause for his canonization was begun in 1989 by Cardinal John O'Connor of New York. As a means of highlighting the esteem in which the Cardinal holds the saintly Haitian, his remains were exhumed in 1990, and moved to the crypt beneath the high altar of St. Patrick's Cathedral. This made him the first person other than an archbishop to be entombed there.

Venerable Father Felix Verala (1788-1853)

Father Felix Varela y Morales was born in Havana, Cuba, on November 20, 1788. After the death of his parents, he was taken by his grandfather to St. Augustine, Florida and there distinguished himself at school because of his intelligence and maturity. It was during these early years that he was called to the priesthood. At 23 years of age, he was ordained as a Catholic priest in Havana’s Cathedral. He soon gained the admiration and love of the Cuban people on account of his exemplary life, his concern for all, and his untiring dedication to learning and education. He won a professorship at the prestigious Seminary San Carlos in Havana and taught there for 10 years. His encyclopedic knowledge and fluency in at least six languages, allowed him to provide a broad and firm philosophical and scientific foundation to a group of students who would later on become renown thinkers and in whom he instilled love for God, for their homeland, and for the value of Faith and education. He also taught them how to think right and contributed notably to the advancement of science, languages, and philosophy in Cuba and in the Americas. In 1821, Father Varela was elected to represent Cuba in the Cortes, Spain’s parliament. During his service at the Cortes, he was a strong advocate for the causes of justice, human dignity, and for the freedom of black slaves.

In December 1823, with the reestablishment of royal absolutism in Spain by King Ferdinand VII , he was forced to go into exile to New York where he proclaimed Cuba’s right to be an independent and sovereign nation. His prophetic speeches and writings awoke the civic conscience of the Cuban people. In New York, he was shown to be an exemplary priest, filled with zeal for the salvation of souls and the defense of the Church, and was named Vicar General in 1829. Father Varela exercised his ministry in New York for almost 30 years with noticeable self-sacrifice and heroism. He founded Transfiguration Church in Five Points (now Chinatown) as well as schools for children, established self-help programs for women, and protected and evangelized the poor.  He founded several newspapers, including in 1825 El Amigo de la Juventud  (The Youth's Friend.) which was probably the first bilingual periodical in New York. As a parish pastor, he earned the admiration and the respect of New York’s faithful. While vicar general of the New York Catholic diocese, he lent his primary pastoral attention to the thousands of Irish and Italian immigrants continually pouring into New York to escape poverty and hunger in their homeland. Living always as one of the poor, he devoted himself entirely to the service of God and of needy people. He became an Apostle for the Immigrants.

Moreover, Father Varela was a magnificent defender of the Catholic faith in the face of attacks from extremist religious leaders. Father Varela’s priestly ministry was graced with the power to illuminate the intellect and the moral conscience of people and draw souls to God. Those who knew him considered him a saint. The last three years of his life were spent in St. Augustine and were marked by sickness, isolation, and poverty, all of which he endured without complaint. Rather, he overcame the disappointments and sufferings through love and the practice of interior peace. His spiritual strength was based on his prayer and his intense love for the Eucharist. Father Varela handed his soul over to God on February 18,1853, in Saint Augustine, Florida. His remains lie in the University of Havana, Cuba. In 1985 the Holy See authorized the Cuban episcopate to initiate the canonical process of sainthood for the Servant of God, Father FELIX VARELA y MORALES. On June 2003, the Positio Document from the Vatican, highlighting his many virtues and achievements, was completed and presented to the Congregation for review of Canonization processes before being submitted to the Holy Father John Paul II.