saint news stories on Newser

Saint's Heart Stolen From Dublin Cathedral

Rob Quinn — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 04:37:00 CST

A thief has ripped the heart of Dublin's patron saint out of one of the city's cathedrals. The preserved heart of St. Laurence O'Toole, which had been on display in Christ Church Cathedral for 800 years, was stolen over the weekend, reports AP . The relic was kept in a heart-shaped...

John Paul's 'Miracle' Shows Catholic Church's Hypocrisy

John Johnson — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 13:57:05 CST

News that the Vatican has given the late pontiff John Paul II credit for a miracle related to Parkinson's leads Michael Kinsley—who has Parkinson's himself—to one conclusion: "The Roman Catholic Church has either a very good or a very bad sense of humor." After all, if the church...

Pope Canonizes 1st Aussie Saint

Polly Davis Doig — Sun, 17 Oct 2010 08:50:45 CDT

Excommunication is an interesting path to sainthood, but Pope Benedict today canonized Australia's first saint, Mary MacKillop, a nun who was once booted from the church in part for outing a pedophile priest. Thousands of Australians were in attendance at the Vatican ceremony, in which five others were also canonized,...

Excommunicated Aussie Nun to Become Saint

bewilderbeast — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 19:35:37 CDT

Australia is about to get its first native-born saint, and it's a woman with a bit of scandal in her history. Pope Benedict will canonize Mary MacKillop, co-founder of a Catholic order dedicated to children and the poor, on Oct. 17. The somewhat unlikely candidate for sainthood had a reputation...

Scandal Threatens John Paul II's Sainthood

Emily Rauhala — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 04:27:54 CDT

Questions swirled about John Paul II's legacy at a ceremony yesterday marking the 5th anniversary of his death. The inexplicable healing of a young French nun from Parkinson's disease had seemed like the miracle required for his sainthood. But, according to a Polish newspaper, there are now doubts the nun...

Pope Defends Nazi-Era Vatican

Mary Papenfuss — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 04:16:00 CST

Pope Benedict yesterday defended the Vatican against criticism that it did little to challenge the Nazis during World War II, saying that the Catholic church helped Jews in "hidden" ways. "Unfortunately, many remained indifferent" to the suffering of the Jews, said the German pontiff. But the Vatican "itself provided assistance,...

Pope Canonizes Father Damien

M. Morris — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 14:44:28 CDT

Father Damien, the Belgian missionary who ministered to leprosy victims on the Hawaiian island of Molokai before contracting and dying of the disease, was canonized today. The 19th-century priest, the founder of the Little Sisters of the Poor, and three others were elevated to sainthood in a ceremony that drew...

'Hugging Saint' Embraces NYC

Kevin Spak — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 08:30:00 CDT

Over the past 2 days one woman has hugged more than 8,000 Manhattanites, reports the New York Times. Her name is Mata Amritanandamayi, but her followers call her Amma, or the “Hugging Saint.” She has been hugging anyone and everyone since she was a teenager in India, and now...

Beloved Italian Saint Exhumed

Neal Colgrass — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 16:25:00 CST

One of Italy's most revered saints was exhumed without warning Sunday night, evading protesters and preempting a legal challenge, the Guardian reports. The body of Padre Pio was "in surprisingly good condition," said the archbishop of Puglia, where the saint's shrine draws millions of visitors every year. "The chin is...