Pope canonizes 7 new saints, including 2 from North America : News Headlines - Catholic Culture

The following excerpts are from Catholic Culture's Catholic World News:

• Pope Benedict XVI presided at the canonization of 7 new saints—including St. Kateri Tekakwitha and St. Marianne Cope—at a Mass celebrated for a congregation of 80,000 people in St. Peter’s Square on October 21.
• Along with St. Kateri, the first Native American saint; and St. Marianne, who worked with lepers at Molokai, the Pope also canonized:
• St. Jacques Berthiue (1838-1896), a French Jesuit martyr;
• St. Pedro Calungsod (1654-1672), a Filipino lay catechist and martyr;
• St. Giovanni Battista Piamarta (1841-1913), an Italian priest;
• St. Maria del Carmen (1848-1911), born Maria Salles y Baranguera, a Spanish religious; and
• St. Anna Schaeffer (1882-1925), a German laywoman.

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Pope canonizes 7 new saints, including 2 from North America : News Headlines - Catholic Culture

Saint John of Capistrano

Saint John of Capistrano (also known as Giovanni da Capestrano; John Capistran) was born in 1386 at Capistrano, Italy. His father had formerly been a German knight, and died when John was still young. He was the reforming governor of Perugia under King Landislas of Naples. When war broke out between Perugia and Malatesta in 1416, John tried to broker a peace, but instead his opponents ignored the truce, and John became a prisoner of war.

During his captivity, he came to the decision to change vocations. He had married just before the war, but the marriage was never consummated, and with his bride's permission, it was annulled. John joined the Franciscans at Perugia on October 1416. He was a student with Saint James of the Marches, and a disciple of Saint Bernadine of Siena. John was a noted preacher while still a deacon, beginning his work in 1420, and he was an itinerant priest throughout Italy, Germany, Bohemia, Austria, Hungary, Poland, and Russia, preaching to tens of thousands. He established communities of Franciscan renewal, and was reported to heal by making the Sign of the Cross over a sick person. He was a prolific writer, writing mainly against the heresies of his day.

After the fall of Constantinople, he preached Crusade against the Muslim Turks. At the age of 70, he was commissioned by Pope Callistus II to lead it, and marched off at the head of 70,000 Christian soldiers. He won the battle of Belgrade in the summer of 1456, and he died in the field a few months later, but his army delivered Europe from the Muslims.

Saint John of Capistrano died of natural causes in 1456 at Villach, Hungary.

CNS STORY: Kateri and Jake: American Indians are joined in sainthood cause

The following excerpts are from Catholic News Service:

• Jake Finkbonner knows what it's like to have kids tease him because of the way he looks, but one of his heroes also grew up being teased.
• The 12-year-old boy said Kateri Tekakwitha, who was to become an official saint Oct. 21, was "an inspiration because I remember reading that many of the children in her tribe teased her because of her faith, but she continued to praise God and she made her own rosary."
• "One of the things she always tried to do was spread her faith, even though her uncle and aunt didn't really approve of it," he said.
• Kateri was raised by her Mohawk father's family after her parents died in a smallpox epidemic; Kateri survived, but with a scarred face and damaged vision.
• Jake and his parents -- Donny and Elsa -- his two little sisters, all four of his grandparents and lots of aunts and uncles traveled to Rome for Kateri's canonization.

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CNS STORY: Kateri and Jake: American Indians are joined in sainthood cause