The canonization cause for Sister Blandina Segale, the “Fastest Nun in the West,” is moving forward after Vatican theologians unanimously voted to advance her sainthood cause.
It is a “very historical moment in the archdiocesan history, but also [for] the Sisters of Charity of Cincinnati and the whole Church,” Archbishop John Wester of Santa Fe, New Mexico, said at a press conference outside the Blandina Segale Convent in Albuquerque, New Mexico, on June 1.
“The Sisters of Charity are profoundly grateful for the life of Sister Blandina and her witness of faith, courage, and care for those most in need,” said Sister Monica Gundler, president of the Sisters of Charity of Cincinnati, in a press release.
“As her story continues to be shared with the world, we pray that her compassionate heart will inspire others to emulate her example of charity, justice, and service,” she said.
Her cause moving forward is “a national celebration,” said Allen Sanchez, the petitioner of Segale’s cause, at the event.
The theologians “came together with a very important lens to look at her life” and examined 14,000 pages of “the argument for her heroic virtue, the book she wrote, and books written about her,” Sanchez said.
After doing so, they confirmed that Segale used the gifts of the Holy Spirit and fulfilled the corporal works of mercy, Sanchez said.
“There was no debate” among them, but it was rather a “celebration,” Sanchez said.
“They have everything in place, but in the summer they get to vote and then itʼs up to them to recommend to the pope if sheʼs venerable,” he said. After an examination by cardinals and bishops who are members of the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, the prefect of the dicastery presents findings to the pope who can consider approval.
If she becomes venerable it will then require one miracle to move forward again to her beatification, but “we have 58 of them,” he said.
Sister Blandina Segale
Segale was an Italian immigrant who came to the Wild West in the 1800s. She was born Maria Rosa Segale in the town of Cigana, Italy, on Jan. 23, 1850. At the age of 4, she and her parents moved to Cincinnati where she joined the Sisters of Charity at 16.
She spent over two decades serving in the American Southwest, primarily in Trinidad, Colorado, and in Santa Fe and Albuquerque, New Mexico.
She worked in schools, orphanages, and hospitals that the sisters operated. She worked to build a trade school for Native American women and a home for the elderly.
She offered direct relief to the poor and helped raise money for numerous efforts.
She “started the public schools and the Catholic schools in [New Mexico] and the healthcare system,” Sanchez said. “The healthcare system that she helped begin with other nuns is now the largest nonprofit healthcare provider in the nation.”
Amid her efforts to start schools and hospitals, she intervened against lynch mobs and outlaws.
She eventually formed a friendship with William Bonney, better known as “Billy the Kid” — an American criminal linked to numerous murders in the late 19th century.
According to legend, and Segale’s journal and letters, one of Billy the Kid’s gang members was shot, but doctors refused to treat him. Segale decided to take him in and nurse him back to health.
The criminal was still unhappy so he planned to return to scalp the four doctors in revenge. When he arrived, Segale intervened and convinced him to call it off on behalf of the man she had saved.
After the incident, Segale and Billy the Kid became friends. She visited him in jail, and he called off a stage-coach robbery as soon as he realized she was one of the passengers.
Gifts of the Holy Spirit
“Blandina had wisdom and she had understanding,” Wester said. “She saw the world through the eyes of God. She had the wisdom of the Scriptures, the wisdom of the Church, the wisdom of faith.”
She also had “courage and fortitude,” he said. “She was this little powerhouse” who “rode down here in the stagecoach by herself, and she came to New Mexico.”
“She trusted in Jesus, that the Lord Jesus was with her and calling her to this mission, and she never wavered in her courage.” She “confronted mobs, lynch mobs, Billy the Kid — all kinds of difficulties with courage.”
“She had prudence” and “the gift of right judgment,” Wester said. “She conceived that we needed hospitals and schools and cemeteries and orphanages and all kinds of institutions to help people. And she started them.”
“She could make good decisions” with her “knowledge to know the will of God, that God was willing peace for his people,” he said.
“God wants us all to live together in peace, and Blandina knew that,” he said.
“I encourage all of us in New Mexico, Catholic and non-Catholic alive, to follow Blandinaʼs example, to care for people, to live in harmony with people, to see the good in people, to be able to affirm one another and build each other up, and to be able to live together in peace,” Wester said.
