The Saints of New York City

Some Have Already Been Canonized; Other Causes Pending

By Angelo Stagnaro

Saintliness isn’t what people might normally associate with gritty New York City. Regardless, the Big Apple has produced two saints and a number of others whose causes have a connection to the city or are at various stages in the canonization process.

And there are still other New Yorkers for whom a sainthood cause might one day be promoted.

“A saint is anyone who is in heaven,” according to Paulist Father Paul G. Robichaud, postulator for the cause of Father Isaac Thomas Hecker, founder of the Paulist Fathers. “A canonized saint is someone who the church determines to actually be in God’s presence.”

He should know: Father Robichaud graduated from what he called the Vatican’s “saint school,” a four-month crash course on “how to make a saint.”

Patron of Immigrants, St. Frances Xavier Cabrini ministered in Brooklyn’s Carroll Gardens area.

“To become a saint, a candidate’s life must be thoroughly investigated,” he explained in an interview. “Once the cause has been introduced and approved by the Congregation for Saints’ Causes, the candidate may be referred to as ‘servant of God.’”

The process leading to canonization involves three major steps: First is the declaration of a person’s heroic virtues, after which the Church declares the person “Venerable.” Second is beatification, after which he or she is called “Blessed.” Third is canonization, or the declaration of sainthood. In general, two miracles must be accepted by the Church as having occurred through the intercession of the prospective saint; one must occur before beatification, and the other after beatification.

The following is a list of people whose ministries were connected to New York City, in various stages of the canonization process, from actual saints to the eternally hopeful:

Native New Yorker, St. Elizabeth Ann Seton is the first American-born saint.

• St. Elizabeth Ann Seton (1774-1821), a native of New York who was a convert to Catholicism and the first native-born American citizen to be canonized. She founded the Society for the Relief of Poor Widows With Small Children, New York City’s first private charitable organization, and founded the U.S. Sisters of Charity. She also established the parochial school system in this country.

• St. Frances Xavier Cabrini (1850-1917), “the patron of immigrants,” born in Italy and the first American citizen to be canonized. She wanted to be a missionary in China, but Pope Leo XIII sent her to New York City instead. One of her stations was in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn. Her relics are enshrined in the church altar at St. Frances Cabrini Shrine in Manhattan.

• St. Isaac Jogues (1607-1646), the first Catholic priest to preside at a Mass on Manhattan Island. He and the other seven Jesuit North American martyrs ministered to the Iroquois and Huron Indians in upstate New York and Canada.

• Pierre Toussaint (1766-1853), a freed Haitian slave who became the city’s most popular hairdresser. He helped finance New York City’s first cathedral, St. Patrick’s Old Cathedral. He’s the only layperson to be buried in the crypt at the “new” St. Patrick’s Cathedral. He was declared venerable in 1997.

• Capuchin Father Solanus Casey (1870-1957), a priest known for his great faith, humility and compassion and for his ministry as a spiritual counselor. He worked for many years in Harlem and East New York and was declared venerable in 1995.

• Father Felix Varela (1788-1853), an abolitionist, scholar, scientist and priest who was born into a wealthy Cuban family but gave it up to serve the poorest of the poor among Irish immigrants of the Lower East Side as well as in Williamsburg at SS. Peter and Paul parish.

• Father Isaac Thomas Hecker (1819-1888), a convert to Catholicism who became a Redemptorist priest and later founded the Paulist Fathers. Cardinal Edward M. Egan of New York formally opened Father Hecker’s cause Jan. 27.

• Sister Rose Hawthorne Lathrop (1851-1926), the daughter of Nathaniel Hawthorne and a convert to Catholicism. She founded St. Rose’s Free Home for Incurable Cancer on Manhattan’s Lower East Side and founded the Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne, N.Y.

• Capuchin Father Stephen Eckert (1869-1923), a Canadian-born Capuchin who ministered to African-Americans in Harlem and in Milwaukee and helped break down racial barriers.

• Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen (1895-1979), famed media evangelist. He was national director of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith for eight years, and later served as bishop of Rochester, N.Y.

• Dorothy Day (1897-1980), pacifist, peace and justice activist and atheist who converted to Catholicism. She dedicated her life to fighting for justice for the homeless in New York City and co-founded the Catholic Worker Movement.

• Cardinal Terence J. Cooke (1921-1983), archbishop of New York City from 1968 until his death. He was known for his kindness, compassion, humility and selflessness.

Cardinal Terence J. Cooke, archbishop of New York City from 1968 until his death, pictured above with Mother Teresa, and Msgr. Bernard Quinn, a Brooklyn diocesan priest who established the Brooklyn Diocese’s first parish for black Catholics, are both being promoted for sainthood.

On Jan. 13, Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio of Brooklyn officially approved of a sainthood cause being opened for yet another New Yorker: Msgr. Bernard Quinn (1888-1940), a Brooklyn diocesan priest who was the founding pastor of St. Peter Claver parish in Bedford-Stuyvesant, the first parish established for black Catholics in the Brooklyn Diocese.

Father Paul Jervis, the current pastor and main promoter of Msgr. Quinn’s cause, said: “We have high hopes Msgr. Quinn will soon be declared a servant of God. Our whole parish is praying.”