To honor the fiftieth anniversary of the Second Vatican Council and the twentieth anniversary of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, Pope Benedict XVI has announced a Year of Faith, starting October 11 and ending November 24, 2013, meant to strengthen the faith of Catholics and draw the world to faith by their example. Pope Benedict has encouraged Catholics to study the lives of the saints as part of the Year of Faith in order to follow their example.


Two saints from the list, Marianne Cope, OSF and Kateri Tekakwitha, will be canonized by Pope Benedict XVI on October 21.











St. Marianne Cope, OSF, another missionary to the lepers of Molokai, joined the Sisters of the Third Order of Saint Francis in her teens and served in leadership roles including novice mistress of her congregation and superior of St. Joseph's Hospital in Syracuse. She became a leader in the field of health care, often caring for those considered outcasts, which led her to volunteer in Hawaii. In Hawaii she cared for women and girls suffering from leprosy, providing them with an education. She died in 1918.
onizedSt. Kateri Tekakwitha, also known as the Lily of the Mohawks, converted at the age of 19, heedless of the anger of her relatives. Because she refused to work on Sundays, she was denied meals that day in the Mohawk village. Finally, a missionary encouraged her to run away to Montreal, where she practiced her faith freely and lived a life of extreme prayer and penance, taking a vow of virginity. She died in 1680.