Posted on 10/17/2012 6:42:05 AM PDT by marshmallow
AURIESVILLE, N.Y. — For more than 300 years, generations of faithful Catholics have prayed for the sainthood of Kateri Tekakwitha. On Oct. 21, they'll celebrate her canonization.
"People have been praying for this since the moment of her death," said Our Lady of Martyrs Shrine museum director Beth Lynch.
The shrine sprawls out over the hilltop where Kateri was born in 1656. In those days it was a Mohawk village call Ossernenon.
Kateri was the daughter of a captive Catholic-Algonquin mother and Mohawk chief in a time when the Catholicism was first working its way through the country.
At the age of 4, smallpox swept through the village, killing her parents, scarring her face and nearly taking her sight.
Isolated because of her scars, Lynch said Kateri lived a life of quiet suffering, prayer and intense devotion to the Eucharist.
"She sanctified the ordinary," Lynch said. "She wasn't walking on water or casting out demons — nothing dramatic. She just showed great wisdom and love in everything she did."
Kateri's life ended at only 24, in Canada. She died of exposure from carrying out her extensive prayer and penance outdoors in the cold northern weather.
Upon her death, witnesses say, the scars that marred her complexion from childhood were wiped from her face. It was a dramatic end to a quiet life, and started Kateri on the 332-year path to sainthood.
In 1980, she became the first Mohawk Indian to be beatified by the Roman Catholic church, but to reach sainthood, a certifiable miracle is required, and the Vatican is hard to please.
"They have to prove the miracle couldn't have been just a medical cure," Lynch said, "which is hard because most people seek treatment."
Scores of divine acts have been credited to Kateri over the years, from physical.....
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
... If she wasn’t a saint when she died, she won’t become one after death.
There are three steps to sainthood -- being pronounced, vernerable, blessed and saint.
It involves time and study. Please read the following links for more info.
SAINTHOOD 101: Rules for Becoming a Saint [Catholic Caucus]
The Process of Becoming a Saint (Canonization) [Catholic Caucus]
Pope Lists Criteria for Causes of Canonization
Salvation, I understand the process. I also understand that it isn’t Biblical. It is an addition to the Bible.
I simply pointed out that God, in the Holy Scriptures, calls ALL BELIEVERS saints. There are no Christians He doesn’t refer to as saints.
Biblically, there isn’t a process, isn’t a distinction and after death, it is too late.
Beyond that, it contradicts the specific words God inspired, recorded and preserved.
I realize there are churches that add to what is declared.
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