7 Holy Souls Awaiting Sainthood

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Most of us are blessed to have inspiring people in our lives. But no matter how amazing they are, most will never be recognized as saints. It’s a long road to sainthood. An immense amount of documentation is required to show that the person demonstrated heroic virtue. If that’s proven, the person can be considered a Servant of God. Between that level and sainthood, there are the respective levels of Venerable and Blessed. The candidates must also have two Church-validated miracles attributed to their intercession.

Because of this, many people pray for their intercession. Whether you’re looking for a holy soul who might intercede for you or you just want to know who some of the candidates are, you might be surprised by some of their backgrounds. Here are seven of the holy souls who are currently awaiting sainthood.

Venerable Pierre Toussaint

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Born in 1766 in what is now Haiti, Pierre Toussaint was born into slavery. Baptized and educated, he was taken to New York by John Berard and his wife, when the Berards were fleeing the slave rebellion that led to Haiti’s independence. Shortly after finding Mr. Toussaint a hairdressing apprenticeship, the Berards lost their fortune, and Mr. Berard passed away. Mr. Toussaint became a successful hairdresser to New York’s elite.

Mr. Toussaint used his wealth to support Mrs. Berard – until she remarried – and to buy slaves their freedom. After being freed by Mrs. Berard on her deathbed, the 45-year-old hairdresser married a woman he had freed and became a philanthropist. Not only did he risk his life by helping cholera victims, he opened his home as an orphanage, an unemployment resource and as a refuge to poor travelers and priests. He and his wife, Juliette, also helped open/build a school, an orphanage and the original Saint Patrick’s Cathedral. In addition to being renowned for his generosity, he attended daily Mass for 66 years and shared his faith with those around him.

Servant of God Dorothy Day

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Another candidate for sainthood who spent many years in New York is the journalist and activist Dorothy Day. Born into a middle class family in Brooklyn in 1897, she was drawn to Christianity as a child. But she soon fell away from faith and became more captivated by socialism and anarchy. She wrote for several Socialist publications.

But in 1925, when she became pregnant with her second child (after aborting her first one), she experienced a conversion. She let her faith guide her social activism. In 1933, she co-founded the Catholic Worker movement and “The Catholic Worker” newspaper. Both the radical, pacifist movement and the publication were established to bring hope to victims of the Great Depression through the creation of shelters, communal farms and campaigns for social justice. The movement, which spread globally, is still helping the homeless and those in great need.

Blessed Miguel Pro

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Also born in the late 1800s, Miguel Pro, whose full name is José Ramón Miguel Agustín Pro Juárez, was a Catholic priest and martyr. Born to a mining family in Mexico, he entered a Jesuit novitiate in 1911, when he was 20 years old. Despite health battles and living under an anti-Catholic Mexican government, the affable young man was overjoyed to be ordained a priest in Belgium in 1925.

When he returned to Mexico, he ministered to an underground church. But in 1927, false charges were brought against him and two of his brothers, and they were executed without trials. On the morning of his execution, he blessed the soldiers and he prayed. He faced his executioners with a crucifix in one hand and a rosary in the other. He stretched out his arms by his sides and shouted "May God have mercy on you! May God bless you! Lord, Thou knowest that I am innocent! With all my heart I forgive my enemies!" Before the firing squad received the order to fire, he stretched out his arms again and shouted “Vivo Christo Rey!”

Servant of God Emil Kapaun

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Another priest who risked his life for others was Rev. Emil Kapaun. Born on Holy Thursday in 1916 and raised on a farm in Kansas, he was ordained in 1940 and served a church in the Catholic Diocese of Wichita, as well as at Herington Air Base. In 1944, he became a chaplain to serve soldiers in World War II. Although he returned to serve in another Kansas parish, he later re-enlisted and would constantly risk his life to pray with Korean War soldiers, to rescue the wounded and to administer to the dying.

In 1950, he had a chance to retreat or stay with the wounded. He chose the latter. After being captured, he and the other prisoners were forced to march 60 miles. As he carried wounded men and encouraged others, he saved many more lives. At the camp, he shared his food, tended to the sick and worked tirelessly to help prisoners hold on to their faith and their will to live. After becoming ill in 1951, his captors forced prisoners to carry him to a place to die. On the way, he forgave his captors and asked for their forgiveness. He also encouraged the prisoners and told them he would pray for them from Heaven.

Servant of God Mother Mary Lange

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Presumably born in Haiti during the revolution in the late 1700s and raised in Cuba, Mother Mary Lange immigrated to the United States in the early 1800s. She felt called to move to Maryland and help educate children of slaves and immigrants. Well-educated and able to speak three languages, the woman of great faith was asked by a Catholic priest to start a school for girls of African heritage. She told him that she had wanted to dedicate her life to God for more than 10 years and asked if she should also start a religious order.

In 1829, she founded the Oblate Sisters of Providence, the first United States religious order of women of African heritage. Surrounded by prejudice and poverty, she committed herself to caring for the sick, educating adults, helping orphans and widows and, above all, educating children. The founder of St. Frances Academy gave freely of herself until she was feeble and nearly blind in 1876. She passed away in 1882, in her late nineties.

Servant of God Sister Blandina Segale

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Another nun, who is also a candidate for sainthood, is Sister Blandina Segale. Born in 1850 in a small village near Genoa, Italy, the nun acquired a most unusual nickname – the fastest nun in the West. After immigrating to the United States as a small child, she attended a school run by the Sisters of Charity. When she was a teen, she felt called to join them. When she was 21, she was sent to a small Colorado mining town, where she taught children in need and ministered to the needs of Native Americans.

She also protected people from outlaws and ministered to those outlaws. She even had a confrontation with “Billy the Kid.” Grateful to her for helping a wounded member of his gang, he asked how he could repay her. Although he seemed surprised that she wanted him to abandon his intentions to scalp the doctors who refused to treat his friend, he agreed. He was just one of many people she convinced to turn away from vengeance. She helped people forgive each other. She later founded St. Joseph’s Hospital and CHI St. Joseph’s Children, a health organization, in Albuquerque. She lived to be 90, and her time in the West was chronicled in a compilation of letters.

Blessed Chiara Badano

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Among the youngest candidates for sainthood is Chiara Badano, a teenager who is also from a small village in Italy. Born in 1971 in Sassello, Italy, Chiara joined the Focolare Movement when she was only nine years old. The Christian group encourages its members to focus on the image of the forsaken Jesus to find strength in their faith. It helped the young girl with unusually luminous eyes to realize that she wanted to become a nun and devote her life to God.

But in 1988, she was diagnosed with osteosarcoma, a painful form of bone cancer. Despite the tremendous suffering she endured, she coped with the disease with remarkable courage. Her faith never wavered. She would even go for walks – which were painful for her – with a fellow hospital patient who had depression, so she could help the other girl feel better. Before her passing in 1990, she also planned her funeral with her mother. Viewing it as her wedding to Jesus, she told her mom that she didn’t want people to cry. She wanted them to sing for joy, because she would be in Heaven.