New Saints Recognized during this Year of Faith
Thursday November 1st is All Saints Day---a holy day of obligation in the Catholic Church in which all the faithful are to attend Mass.
The Mass Schedule at St. John Cathedral is:
All Saints Vigil Mass: Wednesday, October 31 at 5:10 p.m.
Masses on All Saints Day: Thursday, November 1st at 7:15 a.m., 12:00 noon, and 5:10 p.m.
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The Feast celebrating all Christian saints, known and unknown, was first celebrated when Pope Boniface IV dedicated the Pantheon in Rome to the Blessed Mother and the martyrs in the year 610 A.D..
watch the Bishop's All Saints Day Homily The Feast day takes on further significance in this "Year of Faith" as proclaimed by Pope Benedict XVI. Two North American Saints were among seven canonized by the Pope on October 21st.
The first Native American Saint, Kateri Tekakwitha, was the daughter of a Mohawk chief, and despite fierce opposition, converted to Catholicism at age 19. For three years she grew in holiness under the direction of a priest and an older Iroquois woman, giving herself totally to God. She practiced extremely severe fasting as penance for the conversion of her nation. She died the afternoon before Holy Thursday and witnesses said that her emaciated face changed color and beamed like that of a healthy person.
Saint Marianne Cope dedicated her life and ministry to serving those afflicted with leprosy on the island of Hawaii. Leprosy scared most people in the 19th century who were unwilling to care for those afflicted.
The Cope family emigrated to the United state in 1840 and Sister Marianne joined the Sisters of the Third Order of Saint Francis in Syracuse New York in 1862. In 1879 the provincial government of Hawaii was searching for someone to run the Kakaako Receivng Station for people suspected of having leprosy. In 1883 Sister Marianne and six other sister went to Hawaii and took charge of the receiving station, opened a hospital and a school for girls. She died in 1918