A Saint of Our Own - by Kathleen Sprows Cummings (Paperback)

About the Book

"What drove American Catholics in their long and arduous quest, full of twists and turns across more than a century, to win an American-born saint? The absence of American names in the canon of the saints left many feeling spiritually unmoored and disrespected - to be able to look at the same American scenes upon which a saint had gazed would be a joy and privilege, certainly. But believers also had another reason for cultivating homegrown holiness, contends Kathleen Sprows Cummings in this ... chronicle of saint-making in America, where canonization was about holiness but never only about holiness"--

Book Synopsis

What drove U.S. Catholics in their arduous quest, full of twists and turns over more than a century, to win an American saint? The absence of American names in the canon of the saints had left many of the faithful feeling spiritually unmoored. But while canonization may be fundamentally about holiness, it is never only about holiness, reveals Kathleen Sprows Cummings in this panoramic, passionate chronicle of American sanctity. Catholics had another reason for petitioning the Vatican to acknowledge an American holy hero.

A home-grown saint would serve as a mediator between heaven and earth, yes, but also between Catholicism and American culture. Throughout much of U.S. history, the making of a saint was also about the ways in which the members of a minority religious group defined, defended, and celebrated their identities as Americans. Their fascinatingly diverse causes for canonization--from Kateri Tekakwitha and Elizabeth Ann Seton to many others that are failed, forgotten, or still under way--represented evolving national values as Catholics made themselves at home. Cummings's vision of American sanctity shows just how much Catholics had at stake in cultivating devotion to men and women perched at the nexus of holiness and American history--until they finally felt little need to prove that they belonged.

Review Quotes

"A Saint of Our Own would be an excellent choice for a course on American Catholicism. . . . By showing how stories about holy people function to define questions of polity and identity, this book points squarely to key themes of American Catholic historiography."--The Journal of Religion

"A fascinating account of American Catholics' persistent efforts to secure a national saint. . . . [Cummings] deftly weaves her transnational story of American Catholic saint-seeking using a phenomenal range of sources. . . . Her engaging narrative draws the reader into the complexities of the process, the importance of Vatican connections and papal prerogative, the vagaries of individuals assigned to causes, and the evolving understanding of sanctity in the twentieth century."--Theological Studies

"As Cummings shows in intricate detail, canonization is painstaking work that requires labor, money, miracles, investigations and no small amount of luck. . . . Our future saints, some of whom have already passed beyond the veil, will disclose to us as much about ourselves and our church as they will about their own heroic virtue."--America Magazine

"Astute and lively. . . . The work's gracefully interwoven stories and analysis illuminate individual personalities, religious communities, and the transformations of 'U.S. Catholics' understanding of themselves both as members of the church and as citizens of the nation'. . . . A wonderful feat of historical imagination."--American Catholic Studies

"Offers a substantial contribution to understanding U.S. religion, hagiographical developments, and the shifting priorities of the Catholic faithful. It takes up a relatively unexplored topic, providing an astute and interesting analysis of the evolution of U.S. saint-seeking from the early twentieth century to today."--Catholic Historical Review

"Offers an erudite scholarly history of canonization of American exemplars of holiness, and why it is important to American Catholics."--CHOICE

"Proves that the story of the Catholic Church in America continues to be a rich and illuminating one. . . . A Saint of Our Own takes a process that is often mysterious and confusing even to Catholics--canonization--and uses it explore how the experiences, status, and values of Catholics in the United States changed during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, as well as how American Catholics have disagreed with one another about what it means to be Catholic. . . . A fascinating story."--American Historical Review

"Seton's journey to canonization was a long one, and in Cummings's hands it is a fascinating study in the intersection of piety and power."--Commonweal

"This book does more than tell the story of American men and women who have been canonized by the Church since the nineteenth century. The author also relates the unique aspects of the canonization process woven within the story of an immigrant Church becoming aware of its role in the totality of the universal Church."--Catholic Library World