2 new American Saints

Saint Kateri Tekakwitha (1656-1680)

The United States so far claimed two canonized Saints, St Elizabeth Ann Seton, canonized in 1975 for her work with the Catholic school system in the Baltimore area, and St Katharine Drexel, canonized in 2000, for her work with the black and native Americans in the south, donating millions of dollars she inherited from her father, while building schools, hospitals, orphanages and even universities, Drexel university in New Orleans.
Today, two more American-born saints have been canonized by Pope Benedict XVI in Rome. St Kateri Tekakwitha (1656-1680) is canonized for showing humility all through her life, especially after she survived smallpox and was orphaned as a child, then baptized as a Roman Catholic and settled for the last years of her life at the Jesuit mission village of Kahnawake, south of Montreal. She was a member of the Algonquin-Mohawk tribe and was called the “Lily of the Mohawks” and became an inspiration to so many others in Upstate New York and parts of Canada.

Saint Marianne Cope (1838-1918)

St Marianne Cope, (1838-1918) a nun from Syracuse NY, went to help St Damian of Molokai in the leper colony in Hawaii, replacing him after he died, and in a most humble way, took care of the hundreds of lepers who were placed together on the island of Molokai, however never contracting the disease herself. She patiently and lovingly took care of the leper colony until she died surrounded by her fellow nuns.

The 7 banners of each new saint canonized today

The other 5 new saints canonized today are: Pedro Calungsod, a Filipino lay catechist and martyr; Maria del Carmen, the Spanish founder of the Conceptionist Missionary Sisters of Teaching; and Anna Schaffer, a German lay woman; Jacques Berthieu, a French Jesuit; and Giovanni Battista Piamarta, an Italian priest.