PENNSYLVANIA

There is a lot to write about this incredible saint! Here is a preview.

She was the second American born canonized saint. She inherited millions from her father after his unexpected death. She gave it all away building schools for underserved children, especially among the Native American and black children after the Civil War. Pope Leo XIII told her to be a missionary, so she did and started a religious order. She started Xavier University in New Orleans, the only historically Black Catholic University. She funded the Basilica at Belmont Abbey College. She started St. Francis de Sales School for Girls outside Richmond, VA. She opened schools for Native American children in Arizona and New Mexico. The lists goes on and on as we will trace her steps as she traveled east to west, north to south across America sharing her charity and devotion to Our Lord in the Eucharist. I can't wait to tell you more!

Sadly, her shrine  in Bensalem, PA was sold and her body is now in the Cathedral of Sts. Peter and Paul in Philadelphia. Please go visit her and ask for her intercession! St. Katharine Drexel, pray for us!

St. John Neumann was the father of Catholic education. He was a Redemptorist priest and Bishop of Philadelphia. Read more here. His shrine is amazing. It is in Philadelphia. Go to daily Mass, pray at his tomb and ask for his intercession. Learn more here.

Bl. Seelos' shrine is in New Orleans, where he died during the Yellow Fever epidemic. He first arrived in America, from Bavaria and served with the Redemptorists in Pennsylvania. St. John Neumann was actually his spiritual director. Read the blog to learn more about Bl. Seelos. More will come about places he was in Pennslyvania.

A former Russian prince, Demetrius Gallitzan served the people of Western Pennsylvania. More to come!

More to come. Here is the site to his canonization cause.

More to come!

Known as "The Rosary Priest", Fr. Payton started rosary rallies and coined the phrase, "The Family that prays together, stays together." More to come on this amazing Irish born Holy Cross priest who was ordained the same time as his brother. When he first came to America, he was the janitor for the Cathedral in Scranton, PA. For now, read more about his cause for canonization here. 

Fr. Bill Atkison , an Augustinian priest, was the first quadriplegic priest in the US.  He died September 15, 2006. His funeral was held at Saint Thomas Church, Villanova University. He is buried in the Augustinian section of Calvary Cemetery, West Conshohocken, Pa. Read more about him and support his cause here. 

 Ven. Cornelia Connelly's story is an interesting one full of much suffering that lead to her devotion to Mary, the Mother of Sorrows.  Cornelia was born in Philadelphia on January 15, 1809. She married an Episcopalian minister, Pierce Connelly, at age 22. Four years later, they and their two young children became Catholics. In 1840, Cornelia's daughter, her third child, died. She went on a three day retreat and had a deep conversion. That same year, her two year old, John Henry, died in her arms from being scaled in an accident.
In October of that year, pregnant with her fifth child, Pierce told her he felt called to the priesthood. She asked him to reconsider but said she would accept whatever suffering God gave her. Pierce was ordained in 1845 in Rome. Cornelia went with two of her children to Rome, hoping to join the Society of the Sacred Heart. Pope Gregory XVI requested she go to England. In 1846 she arrived in Derby with three companions and started the Society of the Holy Child. Sadly she was ordered to send her children to boarding schools. The society grew as they were holding retreats and building schools. But suffering came again as Pierce renounced his priesthood and the Catholic faith. He took the children from their schools and denied Cornelia contact with them, hoping she would return as his wife. 

There are Sisters of the Holy Child Jesus in 15 countries. Cornelia was declared Venerable on June 13, 1992. There is a memorial altar to Ven Connelly in the Cathedral in Philadelphia.

source: https://www.mayfieldsenior.org/about/our-holy-child-mission/cornelia-connellys-story