Miracle attributed to Paul VI approved!

Don't tell me I told you so?

Didn't I break the news?

It was in 2012 when I heard the news that the process for the pope's beatification was being fast-tracked, no!  Express Lane tracked!  And a few weeks ago, I broke the news that Paul VI is set to be beatified with word coming out of Rome that a miracle has been approved with no scientific explanation for the inexplicable healing of a fetus!   Yes, an unborn boy!


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From this source.

Giovanni Battista Montini's beatification is near: this morning cardinals and bishops of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints unanimously approved the miracle attributed to the intercession of the Italian Pope from Brescia, who died in August 1978. The year which marked the canonization of two Popes – John XXIII and John Paul II – will also be the year of Paul VI’s beatification. In the next few days Pope Francis will be promulgating the decree on the miracle attributed to the late Pope and the date suggested for the actual beatification is 19 October. The beatification is expected to take place in Rome on the occasion of the concluding ceremony of the Extraordinary Synod of Bishops on the Family: [I told you so!]  it was Paul VI himself who established the Synod in September 1965 in response to a request made by the Council fathers. It should be noted that next August will mark the 50th anniversary of the publication of Paul VI’s first big encyclical, the “Ecclesiam Suam”, which he wrote and edited entirely by himself.

The miracle attributed to the intercession of Paul VI was witnessed in the United States in 2001. It involved the healing of an unborn child, which was found to have serious problems and a high risk of brain damage: the foetus’ bladder was damaged and doctors reported ascites (presence of liquid in the abdomen) and anhydramnios (absence of fluid in the amniotic sac). All attempts to correct the problem proved futile and in the end the doctors said the child would either die in the womb or it would be born with severe renal impairment. Abortion was offered as an option but the mother refused. Instead, she took the advice given to her by a nun who was a friend of the family and had met Montini: she decided to pray for Paul VI’s intercession using a fragment of the Pope’s vestments which the nun had given her.  [And some people just keep relics for themselves, even using it for scrupulous reasons, or for bragging rights!]

Ten weeks later the results of the medical tests showed a substantial improvement in the child’s health and it was born by Caesarean section in the 39th week of pregnancy. The case was presented to the former Postulator of the Cause, the Jesuit Paolo Molinari – who passed away last week - in Rome. Faith weekly Credere revealed that the diocesan inquiry was launched in 2003 and all witnesses agree that the case in question cannot be explained scientifically.

The child has made it to thirteen and his health is constantly monitored to ensure that his psychophysical state is normal. Doctors are especially keeping an eye on the child’s renal function. On 12 December last year the medical consultation of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints headed by Professor Patrizio Polisca, confirmed the impossibility of explaining the healing and the dicastery’s theologians gave their approval last 18 February. Benedict XVI promulgated Paul VI’s heroic virtues on 20 December 2012.


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Someone said "There is a rush to canonize these Vatican II popes!  The pope is in fact canonizing Vatican II!"

Wha???

So what about Paul's "Humanae Vitae"?  Nada?

How about Pius XII?

A miracle is being investigated.  What is so amazing about this is it involved not just Pius XII, but also John Paul II!

Read it here.

Miracle after the quake?

I have received this via email.

How true is this?

Did this really happen in Cebu?

From this link.

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On the day after His Holiness Pope Francis consecrated the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, while commemorating the Miracle of the Sun at Fatima, hopefully contemplating the yet unfulfilled request of Mary to consecrate, with all the world's bishops, Russia to her Immaculate Heart, and to release the Third Secret, lest God punishes the world with a great chastisement, a miracle occurred in the Philippines.

A large earthquake hit the southern Philippines. It's epicenter was the island of Bohol. It also occurred in the nearby island of Cebu. The death count is 160+, and 250+ injured. The people noticed a pattern. The main buildings to collapse were the old churches. In several of these churches the only thing that remained standing was a statue of Mary. Here is one story: http://johnib.wordpress.com/2013/10/17/in-the-ruins-of-the-philippines-earthquake-two-holy-statues-stand-alone-bringing-faith-hope/

Yet, the most profound sign came from the most visited Marian Shrine in the Philippines on the island of Cebu, called Mama Mary shrine. There is a large, miraculous statue of Mary in this shrine, that has cried and cured many pilgrims. In the same church there is another statue of Mary, that appears to be Our Lady of Fatima. It has a base with the word "Portugal" on it. This base is continuous with the statue. They are one piece. The base cannot be detached from the body. Otherwise the statue would be broken into two pieces.

Here is the great miracle, which seems to be a message, a warning from Our Lady of Fatima. Right after the earthquake, pilgrims noticed and cried out in alarm that this statue had changed. Mary was now facing the wall, with her back to the people. But, the base itself, molded to the body of the statue, was still facing forward with the "Portugal" inscription!

I will try and upload the pic asap (not working from my phone).

Our Lady of Fatima, pray for us!  May Pope Francis and the world's bishops do as Our Lady requested.

***

Anyone of our friends in Cebu want to confirm this picture and story?


UPDATE:  7:32PM.  Here is the original post of the one who took the picture of the statue of Our Lady of Fatima via her Facebook account.  The post is in Cebuano.  Thanks Patrick!

Unconfirmed reports say John Paul II miracle for canonization approved!

Vatican City, June 18 - The process of declaring former pope John Paul II a saint took a major step forward Tuesday, when the board of theologians of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints approved his second miracle. Now, the proclamation of his sainthood needs only the approval of the commission of cardinals and bishops and the final signature of Pope Francis, Vatican sources have told ANSA. It seems likely that John Paul II - who was beatified on May 1, 2011 - will be proclaimed a saint on October 20, approximately the 35th anniversary of his election as pope. The first miracle attribute to John Paul was an "inexplicable cure" - the first of two steps on the path to sainthood. The pontiff's successor Pope Benedict XVI, who abdicated earlier this year, sanctioned the beatification after a Vatican commission officially attributed as a miracle the inexplicable recovery of a French nun, Sister Marie Simon-Pierre, from Parkinson's Disease. The Vatican ruled that that came through the intervention of John Paul II. The second miracle that will be attributed to him remains a closely guarded secret but sources say it will "amaze the world". The Catholic Church has been keenly awaiting the canonisation of the charismatic John Paul II, one of the most popular popes in history, since he died in 2005 aged 84.

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If this happens, as in the canonization of John Paul II, he will be beatified faster than St. Pius X!

Stay tuned!


PS: That photo of John Paul was never criticized for being too triumphalistic and too pre-Vatican II.  But when it comes to the Benedict XVI wearing the papal mozetta and stole, it's a different thing.

Seems even some Catholic bloggers are very choosy, no?

Possible miracle of Ven. Fulton Sheen

The story about the Archbishop Fulton Sheen's possible miracle is reported.

Here is the excerpt:

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Engstrom, who has a background in English literature, and her husband, Travis, 30, a physics teacher, had their first two children (Lydia, 4, and Bennet, 3) delivered at home and planned the same for their third. (Their fourth child, Teresa, was born in a hospital in May.)

But something went wrong with James’ birth. There was a knot in the umbilical cord and the baby, weighing 9 pounds 12 ounces, was stillborn. He was blue and limp when the midwife placed him briefly in his mother’s arms then took him back to start CPR. There was no pulse or breathing, and while they waited for an ambulance, Travis took water and baptized his son James Fulton. [Emergency baptism.]

They had already chosen that name because of their love for Sheen’s life and teachings. Engstrom had grown up near Sheen’s birth place in El Paso, Ill., they live not far from the foundation, and Engstrom, while pregnant, had watched videos of Sheen’s TV programs.

She remembers sitting on the floor after the delivery, thinking over and over, “Fulton Sheen, Fulton Sheen, Fulton Sheen.” In her despair, it was as close as she could come to a prayer.

The paramedics rushed James to the hospital and tried to start his heart on the way. They administered two doses of epinephrine through lines inserted in his shin bone, and one leaked and turned his entire leg purple. The doctors and nurses in the emergency room worked on him for another 18 minutes, and one told Engstrom that she wanted James to live long enough for her to hold him and say goodbye.

He was intubated with oxygen and doctors compressed his chest, but a sonogram showed that his heart was only fluttering. Sixty-one minutes after James was stillborn, a neonatologist declared that they stop working on him and call the time of death. They stopped and, Engstrom said, “Then his heart started.”


***

Read the full story here.

Fr. Z once blogged that if you want a miracle, call the help of a candidate for sainthood.  Ask the Servant of God to intercede for you.  You need their help, and quite obviously, they do too as they need to prove a miracle through their intercession for their cause to move on.

This is believe so!

If it is God's will, then they will be raised to the honors of the altar.

And He works miracles.

Why you MUST WEAR your Brown Cloth Scapular all the time!

Father John Higgins shares a true story about the power of the Brown Cloth Scapular.

Who doesn’t enjoy a good BBQ with friends? When I was asked to a young couple’s home for a Young Adult Ministry Home Mass and BBQ I packed my Mass kit and off I went. I arrived about 6:00 pm with a hearty appetite and was greeted by about 15 young people. Then the phone rang and everything changed. I had to drive about 10 miles to a hospital where there was an emergency call.

I drove quickly, thinking that the nurse in charge of the ER, Anne, would be waiting for me. I knew her and her husband and children from the parish. When I walked in I could see paramedics at the foot of the only occupied gurney there, so I hurried and walked in. “Sorry, Fr. John, you’re too late. He’s gone.” Anne said, smiling. She had a lot of compassion, but also understood that I’d come as fast as I could. They were removing wires from an older man. I noticed that he was wearing a Brown Scapular, one of the old cloth ones. I reached and said “He’s wearing an old fashioned Scapular”. When I touched it there was a beep from a monitor, then another. The nurse, Anne, said “What did you do?” I said “Nothing!” She and another nurse jumped to work, reconnecting wires and calling for help. The Paramedics stood with their jaws dropped. The patient opened his eyes and said (in an Irish accent) “Oh, good, Father. I’ve been waiting for you. I want to go to Confession.” I nearly fell over. I’d done nothing but seen and touched his Scapular. The next thing I knew they were working on him. He didn’t get to go to Confession, but I gave him an emergency absolution as they worked. One of the Paramedics asked if I was OK and sat me in a chair.

A couple of weeks later the man came to me for Confession and told me that the doctor couldn’t figure out what happened and had to tear up the Death Certificate he’d already started to fill out. The Paramedics had come to see him in the hospital and shown him their notes. At the bottom of the page they’d written the time and place of his death and then in big bold letters had added “BROUGHT BACK TO LIFE BY GOD”.

Miracles still happen. And no, I didn’t do it. It just happened according to God’s will. Why does He intervene in some cases and not in others? I really don’t know. I haven’t figured that out yet. But I do know that God has worked miracles in my life, the most important for me not being what He did for someone else, but what He has done over and over to bring me back from sin and death, through the Sacraments into His Covenant Relationship.


That man still had to die a natural death to be raised from the dead into eternal life. The resurrection Jesus offers all of us is eternal too. And that’s what we look forward to at Easter.

Father Higgins

***

That is why I personally prefer the cloth scapular rather than the brown plastic ones and even the Scapular medal.

Look who is also wearing his.

I read once that up until he died in 2005, he was wearing his Brown Scapular. When he was being operated upon by the doctors after he was shot in St. Peter's Square, he asked his doctors not to remove the scapular.

Make sure that you are properly imposed with it ok, using the approved ritual and formula.

By the way, Fr. Higgins has his own Facebook account. :)

I really pity the Bible-totting "Christians" who do not have anything on their hands like these powerful sacramentals that Holy Mother Church has given us.

They are channels of God's blessings, indeed.

And our Blessed Mother has made her promise also.

Wear yours, ALWAYS!

How a cure is proven miraculous

Unlike in Evangelical circles that anyone who just came to the pastor is instantly healed...

And those, every Sunday morning, who asks you to raise your hands and extend them over the television...

Or those you hear on AM radio...

I am just saying...

If you want to pray for the sick, then that is great!

But don't be quick to jump into conclusion that you just healed someone, miraculously...on national TV or radio.

Holy Mother Church teaches us to be careful when considering these things.

Ever heard of Prudence?

Another Miraculous Story of the Miraculous Medal

Another story of how God works miracles through the Miraculous Medal.  Wear yours today!

For the approved blessing and imposition of the Miraculous Medal, click here

What the Western Media did not report about Novak

I was watching a newscast of ABC and CBS and learned of the death of Robert Novak.  I only learned that he is a Jewish convert to Catholicism by reading it online.  Was it a deliberate attempt to hide that part of his life to millions of viewers not only in America but also the rest of the world?  Once can only speculate.  But something tells me, it was deliberate.

Read the article below to learn of the faith journey of Mr. Novak.  Requeim aeternam dona ei, Domine.

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Catholic Convert and Political Commentator Robert Novak Passes Away 

Washington D.C., Aug 18, 2009 (CNA).- The death of Robert Novak has led many to remember the career of the expert political journalist. Some noted his conversion to Catholicism later in life, with one former colleague calling it his “most important” change of heart.

Novak died of a malignant tumor at his Washington, D.C. home on Tuesday.

One half of the Evans-Novak “Inside Report,” begun in 1963 with journalist Robert Evans, Novak was known for his ability to explain the feuds and factions of American politics with the help of his many inside sources. For a long time he was co-host of the CNN debate show “Crossfire.”

Though a political conservative, he opposed the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq. Later in 2003, he became the object of controversy for exposing the identity of a CIA agent married to retired diplomat John C. Wilson, who investigated and questioned the factual basis for the justifications of the war.

Tim Carney, a former employee of Novak, described the journalist’s late-life conversion to Catholicism as “his most important change of heart.”

“Brought up a secular Jew, and having lived seven decades as an agnostic, Novak entered the church in his 60s,” Carney wrote at HumanEvents.com. “When I went to work for him, I was considering entering the Catholic Church as well. Novak pointed me to the priests who helped answer my remaining questions and cement my faith.”

He reported that Novak told aspiring journalists to pick a different field if they aimed to change the world.

“But, by simply aiming to inform and to do his job as well he could, Novak changed the lives of his readers and those of us blessed to work with him.”

Announcing his cancer diagnosis in his final column for the Chicago Sun-Times on September 7, 2008, he said his health problems first became manifest after he hit a pedestrian with his car. Tests later showed he had lost his left-side vision.

A biopsy revealed a major tumor, leading his oncologist to estimate that he had six months to a year to live.

“Being read your death sentence is like being a character in one of the old Bette Davis movies,” Novak said. “I believe I was able to withstand this shock because of my Catholic faith, to which I converted in 1998.”

Novak went into greater detail about his faith in his 2007 book “The Prince of Darkness: 50 Years Reporting in Washington.”

Novak attended Christian services sporadically until the mid-1960s, but then stopped going to religious services for nearly 30 years.

In the early 1980s, a friend gave Novak Catholic literature after he came close to dying from spinal meningitis. Ten years later, his non-Catholic wife Geraldine persuaded him to join her at Mass at St. Patrick’s Catholic Church in Washington D.C.

The celebrant, Fr. Peter Vaghi, was a former Republican lawyer and adviser to Sen. Pete Domenici (R-NM). He was also a former source for the Evans and Novak column.

Novak then started to go to Mass regularly and decided to convert a few years later. According to Novak, the turning point came when he visited Syracuse University in New York to lecture. Before he spoke he was seated at a dinner table near a young woman who wore a cross necklace. Novak asked her if she was Catholic, and she asked him the same. [This is related to my latest post about the Miraculous Medal.  See what positive effect an outward expression of your faith have on other people?  Produly wear your crucifix, cross, scapular or medal!  Catholic and be proud of it!  Wear it proudly!  We are not in the days of the Diocletian persecution.]

Novak said that he had been going to Mass each Sunday for the last four years, but had not converted.

“Mr. Novak, life is short, but eternity is forever,” the woman responded, thus moving the journalist to begin studying for the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults, the rite by which people learn the Catholic faith. He was baptized at St. Patrick’s in 1998. His wife was also baptized a Catholic.

Novak later recounted his conversion in an interview with a skeptical New York Times interviewer. He said he told her he believed the Holy Spirit was behind coincidences such as his former source becoming a priest.

"I consider this the only one true faith, so I believe the Holy Spirit led me to it," Novak said. 

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and this one entitled "Robert Novak finds peace" where it describes some of his thoughts after his baptism.

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"The ceremony, in May 1998, was mostly a solemn affair. In the course of it, Novak, then 67, was baptized, confirmed, and received his first Holy Communion. “It was an exhilarating experience,” he says, “one of the great moments of my life. I thought I was in a different dimension.” [Do we feel the same after every Holy Communion?] 

The solemnity lifted for a moment when Monsignor [Peter] Vaghi said how privileged they were to witness the transformation of the “prince of darkness” into a “child of light.”

How Miraculous is the Miraculous Medal

Below is from a talk Fr. John Hardon, SJ has given various times.

One of the most memorable experiences that I ever had was with the Miraculous Medal! It changed my life.

In the fall of 1948, the year after my ordination, I was in what we call the Tertianship. This is a third year of Novitiate before taking final vows.

In October of that year, a Vincentian priest came to speak to us young Jesuit priests. He encouraged us to obtain faculties, as they are called, to enroll people in the Confraternity of the Miraculous Medal. Among other things, he said, "Fathers, the Miraculous Medal works. Miracles have been performed by Our Lady through the Miraculous Medal."

I was not impressed by what the Vincentian priest was telling. I was not the medal-wearing kind of person and I certainly did not have a Miraculous Medal. But I thought to myself, "It does not cost anything." So I put my name down to get a four page leaflet from the Vincentians, with the then-Latin formula for blessing Miraculous Medals and enrolling people in the Confraternity of the Miraculous Medal. About two weeks later, I got the leaflet for blessing and enrollment, put it into my office book and forgot about it.

In February of the next year, I was sent to assist the chaplain of St. Alexis Hospital in Cleveland, Ohio. I was to be there helping the regular chaplain for two weeks.

Each morning I received a list of all the patients admitted into the hospital that day. There were so many Catholics admitted that I could not visit them all as soon as they came.

Among the patients admitted was a boy about nine years old. He had been sled-riding down hill, lost control of the sled and ran into a tree head-on. He fractured his skull and X-rays showed he had suffered severe brain damage.

When I finally got to visit his room at the hospital, he had been in a coma for ten days, no speech, no voluntary movements of the body. His condition was such that the only question was whether he would live. There was no question of recovering from what was diagnosed as permanent and inoperble brain damage.

After blessing the boy and consoling his parents, I was about to leave his hospital room. But then a thought came to me. "That Vincentian priest. He said, 'The Miraculous Medal works.' Now this will be a test of its alleged miraculous powers!"

I didn't have a Miraculous Medal of my own. And everyone I asked at the hospital also did not have one. But I persisted, and finally one of the nursing sisters on night duty found a Miraculous Medal.

What I found out was that you don't just bless the medal, you have to put it around a person's neck on a chain or ribbon. So the sister-nurse found a blue ribbon for the medal, which made me feel silly. What was I doing with medals and blue ribbons.

However, I blessed the medal and had the father hold the leaflet for investing a person in the Confraternity of the Miraculous Medal. I proceeded to recite the words of investiture. No sooner did I finish the prayer of enrolling the boy in the Confraternity than he opened his eyes for the first time in two weeks. He saw his mother and said, "Ma, I want some ice cream." He had been given only intravenous feeding.

Then he proceeded to talk to his father and mother. After a few minutes of stunned silence, a doctor was called. The doctor examined the boy and told the parents they could give him something to eat.

The next day began a series of tests on the boy's condition. X-rays showed the brain damage was gone.

Then still more tests. After three days, when all examinations showed there was complete restoration to health, the boy was released from the hospital.

This experience so changed my life that I have not been the same since. My faith in God, faith in His power to work miracles, was strengthened beyond description.

Since then, of course, I have been promoting devotion to Our Lady and the use of the Miraculous Medal. The wonders she performs, provided we believe, are extraordinary.

In teaching theology over the years, I have many semesters taught the theology of miracles. And I have an unpublished book manuscript on "The History and Theology of Miracles." My hope is to publish the manuscript in the near future.
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Why wear any type of necklace when you can wear the Miraculous Medal and enjoy the promised protection of the Virgin Mother to those who would wear it with faith and confidence?  You wear it as an outward sign of your faith and trust in God's protection through the patronage of His Loving Mother.  If God our Father trusted the Virgin Mary to bear his ONLY Son, who are we then not to trust Her?

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For those looking for the traditional blessing and imposition of the Miraculous Medal, here it is.

Blessing and Investiture with Miraculous Medal

(Priest vests in surplice and white stole)
+. Our help is in the name of the Lord
R. Who made heaven and earth
+. The Lord be with you
R. And with your spiri.

Let us pray.

Almighty and merciful God, Who by the many appearances on earth of the Immaculate Virgin Mary were pleased to work miracles again and again for the salvation of souls; kindly pour out Your blessing + on this medal, so that all who devoutly wear it and reverence it may experience the patronage of Mary Immaculate and obtain mercy from You; through Christ our Lord. AMEN.

Priest sprinkles Miraculous Medal(s) with Holy Water, then presents it to person(s) saying:

Take this holy medal; wear it with faith, and handle it with due devotion, so that the holy and Immaculate Queen of Heaven may protect and defend you. And as she is ever ready to renew her wondrous acts of kindness, may she obtain for you in her mercy whatever you humbly ask of God, so that both in life and in death you may rest happily in her motherly embrace. AMEN.

Lord, have mercy.
Christ, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.

Our Father...

+. And lead us not into temptation
R. But deliver us from evil
+. Queen conceived without Original Sin
R. Pray for us who have recourse to thee
+. O, Lord, hear my prayer
R. And let my cry come unto thee
+. The Lord be with you
R. And with your spirit.

Let us pray.

Lord Jesus Christ, Who willed that Your Mother, the Blessed Virgin Mary conceived without sin, should become illustrious through countless miracles; grant that we who ever seek her patronage may finally possess everlasting joys. We ask this of You, Who lives and reigns forever and ever, AMEN.

Decrees of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints

VATICAN CITY, 3 JUL 2009 (VIS) - Today, during a private audience with Archbishop Angelo Amato S.D.B., prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, the Pope authorised the congregation to promulgate the following decrees:

MIRACLES

- Blessed Candida Maria de Jesus Cipitria y Barriola (nee Juana Josefa), Spanish founder of the Congregation of the Daughters of Jesus (1845-1912).

- Servant of God John Henry Newman, English cardinal and founder of the Oratories of St. Philip Neri in England (1801-1890).

- Servant of God Angelo Paoli (ne Francesco), Italian professed priest of the Order of Carmelites of the Strict Observance (1642-1720).

- Servant of God Maria Alfonsina Danil Ghattas (nee Soultaneh Maria), co- foundress of the Congregation of the Sisters of the Most Holy Rosary of Jerusalem (1843-1927).

MARTYRDOM

- Servant of God Jose Samso i Elias, Spanish diocesan priest, pastor and archpriest of Santa Maria de Mataro, killed in hatred of the faith during religious persecution in Spain (1887-1936).

- Servant of God Teofilo Fernandez de Legaria Goni (ne Beniamino) and four companions, professed priests of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary (PICPUS), killed in hatred of the faith during religious persecution in Spain in 1936.

- Servant of God Georg Hafner, German diocesan priest, killed in hatred of the faith in the concentration camp of Dachau, Germany (1900-1942).

- Servant of God Zoltan Ludovico Meszlenyi, Hungarian titular bishop of Sinope and auxiliary of Esztergom, killed in hatred of the faith at Kistarcsa, Hungary (1892-1951).

HEROIC VIRTUES

- Servant of God Engelmar Unzeitig (ne Uberto), German professed priest of the Congregation of Missionaries of Mariannhill (1911-1945).

- Servant of God Anna Maria Janer Anglarill, Spanish foundress of the Institute of Sisters of the Holy Family of Urgell (1800-1885).

- Servant of God Maria Serafina del Sacro Cuore di Gesu Micheli (ne Clotilde), Italian foundress of the Institute of Sisters of the Angels (1849- 1911).

- Servant of God Teresa Manganiello, Italian laywoman of the Third Order of St. Francis (1849-1876).