AMERICA : USA : 2 AMERICAN WOMEN SOON TO BE SAINTS KATERI AND COPE

Two new North American women to become Saints: Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha a Native American woman, born in 1656, who became a Catholic and cared for the sick is set to be canonized by Pope Benedict XVI. Certain miracles have been shown to be through her the Vatican announced on Dec. 19. She was born on the Mohawk River, in now New York State. Kateri's father was a Mohawk chief and her mother an Algonquin convert to Catholicism. She suffered from smallpox at the age of 4, and was left with scars and frailty.
She was baptised by Jesuits at the age of 20. She took a vow of chastity and moved to a Christian community. The smallpox scars on her face disappeared inexplicably a few minutes after her death. She will be Patroness of the Native Americas.

 

Also Blessed Mother Marianne Cope, a German-born Franciscan nun, is soon to be canonized.

She spent 30 years caring for lepers on the island of Molokai, Hawaii. Cope died of natural causes in 1918. She was the successor of St. Damien de Veuster, a Belgian priest known as "Father Damien," who died of leprosy in 1889.  Two miracles have been attributed to her.