Who's Your Favorite American or Canadian Saint or Blessed?

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Blessed Fr. Solanus Casey for me as well. He’s a Capuchin, and an excellent example of obedience and humility. He was flunked out of diocesan seminary. He wasn’t allowed to hear confessions or preach publically. And as a priest, was the friary Porter (door keeper), which was not a job for priests, but for non-ordained brothers. In those days, there was more of a separation between priests and brothers in the order than there is today, and almost certainly would have been humiliating for a priest to be relegated to the duties of a Brother.
 
I have a soft spot for folks who dedicate themselves to serving the marginalized, so I have to give props to Katherine Drexel and Fr. Damien.

John Neumann also deserves mad praise for being so multilingual. I don’t know how he did it.
 
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Fr. Damien came from Belgium. But he deserves super hero saint status as he gave his everything for the poorest of the poor on Molokai which is part of the U.S.
 
The one I’m most familiar with is St Kateri Tekakwitha. She’s pretty popular in this part of the country where there are a lot of natives, and I read her biography (along with Elizabeth Ann Seton and Fr Serra).

Venerable Fulton Sheen was a remarkably warm, charismatic evangelist. He was an icebreaker for a nation that has always been thickly protestant. I’m very confident his cause will move forward.
 
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One good reason for mentioning the “Servants of God” and “Venerables,” those still in the process of canonization, is to make them more well known. The more people in need pray for the intercession of these potential saints, the more likely the miracles required for canonization will be documented. So I offer here one more Servant of God, Los Angeles’ own Fr. Aloysius Ellacuria, C.M.F.

www.aloysius.com/fraloysiusellacuriacmf.html
 
I don’t know any American or Canadian Saints.

When I was a child, I was very fond of Padre Pio. The day he died, I remember telling my mother that he was a true Saint even tho he hadn’t yet been formally declared one. He was the first Saint I knew of living during my then only 7 years of life.

So yes, Saint Padre Pio and Blessed Teresa of Calcutta who I also knew was a Saint before she was declared one.

As for Venerable Fulton Sheen, yes, definitely a Saint. Wish they’d hurry up and declare him Blessed. That would make Fr Andrew Apostoli so happy.
 
Tis_Bearself said:
The war chaplain Servants of God like Fr. Kapaun and Fr. Capodanno are great, I hope they become saints. Also Fr. Flanigan who started Boys’ Town.

I also recently discovered Fr. Peyton, the “Rosary Priest”, who emigrated to US from Ireland. He is a Servant of God who is currently up for Venerable status (theologians have sent in the documents for review). He used to have these giant Rosary rallies in various countries funded partly with CIA money (about which I could not care less, I’d rather see the CIA fund Rosaries than revolutions). There are videos of him saying the Rosary on Youtube that I use to say mine sometimes. He also started the phrase “The Family That Prays Together Stays Together” which I heard constantly growing up.
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My father told me some years ago Fr Emil Kapaun
has been an inspiration to him since 1954.The Doughboy Chaplain of incredible heroism and selflessness died as a prisoner of war in 1951.
 
Here’s another Spanish Franciscan friar who served in America and is being considered for sainthood like his confrere, St. Junipero Serra. He is Servant of God Padre Magin Catala, O.F.M., known for his many miracles in California both before and after his death in 1830. He is buried at the Mission Santa Clara.
 
I am happy for the Americans that His Holiness has advanced the cause of Father Patrick Peyton, CSC, during the recent audience of His Holiness with the Cardinal Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints
 
Awesome news about Fr. Peyton. I just “discovered” him a couple months ago because the rosary group that now publishes his book put videos of him praying the Rosary on Youtube, so you can pray the rosary along with him.

(And I’m somehow not at all surprised that Pope Francis likes Dorothy Day. )
 
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Dorothy Day had a rather rough-and-tumble start to her life, but then became a very devout Catholic. She’s a fascinating woman.
 
I think she is very interesting, but I noted when I read her biography years ago that she referred to Peter Maurin (the theologian who co-founded Catholic Worker movement with her and was her mentor) as a living saint and her inspiration. Yet, there seems to be absolutely no interest in canonizing Maurin. I find this weird, unless he has some skeleton in his closet that I don’t know about.
 
I have a few I really like: St. Isaac Jogues, St. Damien of Molokai, St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, and Venerable Pierre Toussaint.

I really like Ven. Pierre. His story is amazing: an slave hairdresser in New York who paid for the freedom of his wife and children but voluntarily stayed in slavery to support his mistress who would have been thrown out in the streets in poverty if he had left and taken the entirety of his wages with him. He was so holy and respected in New York that when an usher in St. Patrick’s Cathedral tried to throw him out, the rich whites in the congregation defended him and brought him up to the front of the Church to sit with them.
 
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