New Year, New U.S. Saints

Only six years after Mother Marianne Cope was beatified, the New York-bred collaborator of St Damien deVeuster on Hawaii's Molokai leper colony has cleared the final hurdle to sainthood.

Officials of Blessed Marianne's Syracuse-based cause relayed word that the cardinal-members of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints had affirmed that a second inexplicable healing attributed to the intercession of the Franciscan nun (1838-1918) was, indeed, miraculous. Following the initial judgment of its medical board, the full dicastery's vote to recommend canonization marked the last deliberative part of the sainthood process.

A decree of the miracle's authenticity will now be presented to Pope Benedict at his next audience with the Congregation's prefect, Cardinal Angelo Amato SDB, which is expected to take place within weeks. Once the pontiff's pro forma approval of the finding is granted, Cope's canonization date would then be announced by the Pope at a subsequent consistory of the cardinals resident in Rome.

Also expected in the impending batch of miracle decrees is the long-awaited final step to sainthood for the "Lily of the Mohawks," Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha (1656-80).

Beatified in 1980, the convert and catechist of Mohawk-Algonquin roots enjoys a particularly intense devotion among Native American Catholics, and is likewise regarded as a patroness of ecology and the care of the environment. Though Kateri's cult extends far beyond her home-turf, like Mother Marianne, she can be considered a New Yorker, having been born near present-day Auriesville (home of Martyrs Shrine).

Since his 2005 election, Benedict has already canonized two heroes from current-day US territory: the French-born Indiana foundress Mother Theodore Guerin in 2006, and the Belgian-born Father Damien -- now a Hawaiian folk hero -- who's revered worldwide as a particular patron for HIV/AIDS sufferers and the marginalized in general.

While six American saints have been elevated on the basis of individual causes since the "Mother of Immigrants" Frances Xavier Cabrini in 1946, never have two been canonized at once.