Saintly Causes

Of the hundreds of beatification and canonization processes pending in the tribunals of the Roman Catholic Church, five made U. S. news last week:

Black Barber. Last week brought the feast day of a humble Peruvian who was beatified and declared Blessed in 1837. He was Martin de Porres (1579-1639). a mulatto barber whose father was a Spanish nobleman and whose mother was a Negro. A Dominican lay brother, Blessed Martin was a "Father of the Poor." The movement to elevate Blessed Martin to sainthood is being fostered not only by priests who give Porres leaflets to Pullman porters but also by 50,000 members of the Blessed Martin Guild, founded by The Torch, Dominican monthly whose editor is Rev. Edward Hughes 0. P. In the Dominicans' swank Manhattan Church of St. Vincent Ferrer last month was unveiled a statue of Blessed Martin (see cut, p. 46), first of a Negro in any U. S. Catholic church. "Non Sum Papabilis." When the College of Cardinals gathered in 1903 to elect a Pope,the following conversation took place between a Frenchman and an Italian:* "Votre Eminence est sans doute archeveque en Italic. Dans quel diocese?" "Non parlo francese." "In quanam diocesi es archiepiscopus?" "Sum patriarca Venetiae." "Non liqueris gallice? Ergo non es papabilis, siquidem papa debet gallice liqui." "Verum est, Eminentissime Domine. Non sum papabilis. Deo Gratias." The Patriarch of Venice, who spoke no French but in Latin thanked his God that on that account he was not eligible to become Pope (papabile), was Giuseppe Sarto. Few days later he was chosen Pope, taking the name Pius X. Theologically Pius X's greatest work was his encyclical Pascendi which demolished the then dangerous Catholic movement toward Modernism. Vainly attempting to stave off the War, he died soon after its beginning, has been called its first victim. Last June brought the centenary of the birth of Giuseppe Sarto. Last week many a Catholic was praying that Pope Pius X be made a saint, the Boston Pilot recalling that since his death people have been gathering by his tomb in St. Peter's, that the first process on his holy virtues has now been completed. Fairest Flower, At a priests' meeting during the Seventh National Eucharistic Congress in Cleveland last September (TIME, Sept. 30), it was voted to petition the Holy See to expedite the beatification of an Indian girl named Catherine Tekakwitha. Last week Cleveland's Bishop Joseph Schrembs in a formal letter apprised Pope Pius XI of this fact.

Catherine (Kateri) Tekakwitha was born in what is now New York State in 1656. Of her eagerness to emulate the saints, her biographer, Rev. John J. Wynne. S. J. says: "She applied the lash and the pointed metal cincture to her body regularly; she even branded herself with hot iron and walked barefoot in the snows of winter; when she began to sleep in brambles her strength gave out and her secret was discovered." She died in 1680. Proceedings for her beatification were begun by the Bishop of Albany in 1931, to the great joy of 2,200 Catholic Indians living near her tomb, which bears an inscription in Iroquois: "The Fairest Flower that ever bloomed among true men." Architect-Priest. In River Forest, Chicago suburb, the girls of Rosary College prayed, meditated, never spoke above a whisper for three days last fortnight. Then on Founder's Day they did honor to Rev. Samuel Charles Mazzuchelli, founder of the Dominican Congregation of the Most Holy Rosary, whose nuns conduct the College in a $2,000,000 building. The celebration was intended quietly to launch the saintly cause of Father Mazzuchelli. a naturalized U. S. citizen and able architect, who built the Most Holy Rosary's first home, dotted the Midwest with 50 churches, died in 1864. Slovene Missionary. A contemporary of Father Mazzuchelli was Bishop Frederic Baraga (1797-1868), born in Slovenia, first Bishop of Sault Ste. Marie & Marquette, Mich. Bishop Baraga evangelized the Chippewa Indians. Promoted by Yugoslavian and U. S. Catholics, his cause received impetus last week when a Vice Postulator, Rev. Ethelbert Harrington, O. F. M. of Calumet, Mich., took charge of it.

*As related by George Seldes in The Vatican: Yesterday--Today--Tomorrow. Since 1914, divulging the secrets of conclaves has been prohibited under pain of excommunication.

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