Holy Heroes
Holy Heroes March - April 2012
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St. Rose of Lima
Rose often prayed long hours and lived all alone. She raised vegetables and did needlework to help support her parents who were poor. Still she was often teased and ridiculed by her parents and others in the community. Besides suffering herself, Rose spent much time helping the poor and those who were suffering due to illness. She, herself, was often ill and died as a young woman at the age of 31. Rose was known as a holy woman and the people of Lima went into mourning when she died. Rose is the Patron of Central and South America, and the Philippines and was the first officially recognized saint of the “New World”.
St. Vincent de Paul
Vincent was born in 1581 in France to a peasant family. He was very smart and rather than become a farmer was sent to study with the Franciscan fathers. He became a priest at the age of 20 and took a journey to Rome. On his way there his ship was overtaken by pirates and he was sold into slavery from which he escaped two years later. After this with the help of Pope Paul V he became the chaplain to the Queen of France where he persuaded many wealthy people to fund organizations for the poor and the sick. Vincent was very aware of those in need and soon, with the help of the wealthy, opened hospitals and orphanages and worked to improve the lives of slaves and prisoners.
In 1625 Vincent began a new order of priests who dedicated their lives to spreading the Good News in remote villages and caring for convicts and the poor. He believe that the “Vincentian” men should take their good works to the wider world so they traveled as missionaries from France to Madagascar, Poland, Ireland, Scotland and countries in Africa. Vincent inspired many men and women to care for the poor, the homeless, the debt-ridden, orphans and prisoners and inspired many wealthy people to fund their work. Today the St. Vincent de Paul Society, a charity begun by Frederick Ozaman in memory of the work of St. Vincent de Paul continues to help the poor and vulnerable through the work of its Catholic and Protestant lay members.
Kateri Tekakwitha
In 1656 at the age of 4 Kateri Tekakwitha lost her mother, younger brother and father, the chief of the Turtle Clan, due to the smallpox epidemic introduced by European settlers which killed over 20,000 Native Americans. Though Kateri survived she would live with the facial scars and partial blindness from this terrible illness. She was then raised by her uncle in the Mohawk community where she worked in the fields tending the corn. Kateri worked hard and often tried to keep alive in her heart the stories of Christian faith her mother had shared with her. Even though she practiced the Mohawk religious rituals she dreamed of being a Christian.
When the the Jesuit fathers came to her village she connect to what they said even though most other Mohawk people were suspicious and fearful of them. When she refused to marry she was ostracized even more from her tribe. They felt she was turning her back on her own family and tribe and were offended by her actions because the white man had brought the disease and starvation to their lives. The Mohawk tribe shunned her.
Kateri felt an strong bond to Jesus between her difficult life of harassment and the way Jesus suffered. She tried to practice her Christian religion outwardly and soon it became clear she was no longer safe in her community. The Jesuit staying with the tribe made arrangements for her to be taken to Canada to live with other Christian Native Americans. It was here she openly lived a Christian life of prayer and good works for others. Many white people came to see Kateri as a strong and holy woman and even members of the Mohawk tribe came to admire and respect her strength of commitment. Soon after Kateri died, 24 Native Americans became Christians because of her love and devotion to God. Blessed Kateri is a patron of ecology and ecologists, of the environment, environmentalism, environmentalists, exiles, orphans, the exiled, those ridiculed for their faith and for World Youth Day.
Blessed Damien De Veuster of Molokai
Joseph De Veuster, born in 1840, was the seventh child of a farming family. Though at first considered too uneducated to be allowed to study for the priesthood, he made his vows, taking the name Damien, and became a member of the Fathers of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary in 1860. His brother, a priest in the order, was to be sent on mission to Hawaii but became ill with typhus and Damien offered to go in his place. Damien arrived in Hawaii in 1863. There he was ordained a priest. After working at two mission stations in the Hawaiian islands for nine years, he volunteered to go to the leper colony on the island of Molokai. At that time there was no cure for leprosy and any people contracting the disease were removed from all human contact. The people were confined to one area of the island of Molokai where they lived in deplorable conditions. When Damien arrived, there were 800 people in this area and more arriving continuously.
Damien love these people, seeing them as “souls redeemed by Christ” and was prepared to do anything for them. He tried to improve their living conditiions, begged for clothes from other missions and introduced some basic health standards. His work become known world-wide and money was sent to him to help in his ministry. With that money he established an orphanage, improved roads, and improved the hospital and medical attention for the people. After 12 years of working with in the leper colony he, himself, was diagnosed with leprosy. He continued his work on Molokai until he died on April 15, 1889 at the age of forty-nine.