Historical Leaders

Malala Yousafzai

Malala Yousafzai became an international symbol of the fight for girls’ education after she was shot in 2012 for opposing Taliban restrictions on female education in her home country of Pakistan.

Sojourner Truth

One day when she was nearly 70 years old, the elderly woman announced to her friends in Battle Creek, ...“I’m going down there to advise the president,” she said.

That’s how Abraham Lincoln met Sojourner Truth, former slave and feisty advocate of black emancipation and women’s right.

Women of our faith

Blessed Women

He is the first black Brazilian national to be beatified in the Catholic Church and the first slave-turned-priest to be considered for canonization. He was beatified on 14 November 2015 in Brazil

Marie-Clémentine Anuarite Nengapeta

Black Catholic journalist and early Civil Rights leader

Blessed Victoire Rasoamanarivo

The process of her beatification started on 19 February 1956. Pope Saint John Paul II approved a miracle attributed to her intercession on 9 May 1985.

Blessed Irene Stefani

Sr. Irene was beatified in 2015. Blessed Irene Stefani’s feast day is October 31. She is a patron of Nyeri (Kenya) and the Consolata Missionaries.

Eliza Liduina Meneguzzi

She was beatified on October 20, 2002 by Pope John Paul II.

Women with a Cause for Canonization

A cause for canonization involves a thorough investigation into the life and death of an individual to ascertain whether they lived a virtuous life or were martyred. Each canonization cause consists of two distinct phases: the diocesan phase and the Roman phase. The diocese responsible for initiating a cause is the one in which the person passed away or was martyred.