June Saint of the Month

St. Marianne Cope, O.S.F. Missionary to the lepers of Molokai, Hawaii

St. Marianne Cope was a born leader. Growing up as one of the older children of a large family, she went to work in a factory right after finishing the eighth grade. She joined the Sisters of the Third Order of Saint Francis a few years later, and began a whirlwind of leadership roles: twice as the novice mistress of her congregation, and three times as the superior of St. Joseph's Hospital in Syracuse. This leadership, coupled with her sympathy for mankind in general, led her to volunteer to go to Hawaii to take care of the lepers. She was finally stationed in Molokai, where she brought education and happiness to the leper colony: even providing bright scarves and pretty dresses for the women. To read more about this determined and yet charming woman, check out the websites below!

For more information on St. Marianne Cope, O.S.F. click on this link: http://www.vatican.va/news_services/liturgy/saints/ns_lit_doc_20050514_molokai_en.html 

(From: http://www.usccb.org/beliefs-and-teachings/how-we-teach/new-evangelization/year-of-faith/saints-for-the-year-of-faith.cfm)

February Saint of the Month

St. Rose Philippine Duchesne, R.S.C.J. Missionary to Native Americans
St. Rose Philippine Duchesne was a passionate young woman with a heart for missionary work. She joined the Visitation nuns at the age of 19, but a few years later, convents were shut down during the French Revolution, and Rose was forced to return to life as a lay woman for many years. Ten years later, she was finally able to rejoin a convent, this time as a member of the Society of the Sacred Heart. In 1818, she was sent to the Louisiana Territory as a missionary, facing illness, hardship and hunger to bring Catholicism to the Native Americans. She opened the first free school for girls west of the Mississippi river, as well as the first Catholic school for Native Americans. She was known among the Pottawatomie Indians as the "Woman Who Prays Always.
To find out more about St. Rose Phillipine Duchesne follow this link: http://www.vatican.va/news_services/liturgy/saints/ns_lit_doc_19880703_duchesne_en.html