By Katie Yoder
OSV News
Drawing inspiration from St. Carlo Acutis, a national shrine in Wisconsin is inviting Catholics to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the United States this summer by joining in prayer and learning about the holy men and women of America.
“They founded schools, cared for the sick, served the poor and witnessed to the Gospel through lives of sacrifice, service and unwavering love for Jesus Christ,” said Father of Mercy Anthony Stephens, rector of the National Shrine of Our Lady of Champion. “Their example shows us what it truly means to be a faithful Catholic and to be American.”
Scheduled for July 1-9, “Catholic Saints of America” will feature a special novena, an exhibit honoring people from the U.S. who are saints or on the path to sainthood and an opportunity to venerate their relics.
The relics or remains of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, Blessed Solanas Casey and Blessed Stanley Rother will be among those on display.
All this is taking place on the site of the only church-approved Marian apparition site in the United States.
The exhibit’s format was inspired by a traveling Eucharistic miracles exhibit, which was based on a website created by St. Carlo Acutis, the Italian teenager who was canonized last year.
The saints being honored are Sts. Elizabeth Ann Seton, John Neumann, Marianne Cope, Katharine Drexel, Damien de Veuster, Junipero Serra, Kateri Tekakwitha, Theodore Guerin, Frances Xavier Cabrini and Rose Philippine Duchesne. St. Teresa of Kolkata was given honorary American citizenship in 1996, the year before she died.
Beatified women and men include Blesseds Miriam Teresa Demjanovich, Stanley Rother, Solanus Casey, Michael J. McGivney, Francis Xavier Seelos and Carlos Manuel Cecilio Rodriguez Santiago of Puerto Rico. Five Franciscan friars known as the Georgia martyrs will join them Oct. 31, and the beatification of Archbishop Fulton Sheen is also expected soon.
Find out more about the exhibit at championshrine.org/americansaints.