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TV viewing, fellow saints


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POSTED: Wednesday, October 07, 2009

Television viewing

Live coverage of the canonization ceremony begins at 10 p.m. Saturday, with rebroadcasts on Sunday.

» KGMB: Live from St. Peter's Square from 10 p.m. to midnight

» Catholic Television Network (EWTN, digital channel 408): Live coverage from 10 p.m. until the ceremony ends; rerun at 7:30 a.m. Sunday

» Oceanic Channel 16. A locally produced hourlong documentary on Damien's life will be shown at 1 p.m. Sunday, followed by a replay of EWTN's canonization video at 2 p.m.

 

Saints of the states

Father Damien De Veuster will be the 10th person whose work in what is now the United States led to sainthood. The others:

» Sts. Isaac Jogues (died 1646), Rene Goupil (died 1642) and Jean Lalande (died 1646), all North American Jesuit martyrs canonized in 1930

» St. Frances Cabrini (1850-1917), canonized in 1946

» St. Elizabeth Ann Seton (1774-1821), canonized in 1975

» St. John Neumann (1811-1860), canonized in 1977

» St. Rose Philippine Duchesne (1769-1852), canonized in 1988

» St. Katharine Drexel (1858-1955), canonized in 2000

» St. Anne Therese Guerin (1798-1856), canonized in 2006

Only two, Seton and Drexel, were born in America.

Neumann, born in Bohemia, became bishop of Philadelphia and established several Catholic schools. The others were members of Catholic religious orders recognized for work with American Indians, blacks and immigrants. Five other Jesuit contemporaries of Jogues, Goupil and Lalande were martyred by Indians in Canada. They are counted as Canadian saints.

 

Sharing sainthood

Pope Benedict XVI will declare four new saints besides Damien Sunday in St. Peter's Square:

» Jeanne Jugan: The Frenchwoman is considered a model for caregivers to the elderly poor. She founded the Congregation of the Little Sisters of the Poor, which comprises about 2,700 nuns operating more than 300 homes, including 32 in North America. She died in 1879.

» Polish Archbishop Zygmunt Szczesny Felinski: After spending 20 years in exile in Siberia after opposing the Russian czarist empire's interference in church affairs, he founded the Congregation of Franciscan Sisters of the Family of Mary. He died in 1895.

» Father Francisco Coll y Guitart: The Dominican priest was a traveling evangelist in Spain at a time when the government was suppressing religious orders. He founded the Congregation of the Dominican Sisters of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary. He died in 1875.

» Friar Rafael Arnaiz Baron: The Spanish Trappist monk was revered as a mystic for his spiritual writings and lifestyle. He died in 1938 at the age of 27.