Saints

The archbishop who steered Poland’s Catholic Church through communist rule and a blind Franciscan nun who founded one of Europe’s foremost centers for the sight-impaired took a step closer to sainthood Sept. 12.

The mortal remains of the first three Korean Catholic martyrs have been recovered more than two centuries after their deaths, announced the Diocese of Jeonju.

As Bishop Richard F. Stika of Knoxville, Tennessee, presided at a memorial Mass and reentombment of the body of Father Patrick Ryan at the Basilica of Sts. Peter and Paul, a possible miracle attributable to the Chattanooga priest may already be in the works.

At 10:50 on the morning of July 27, Father J. David Carter’s voice rang out at Mount Olivet Cemetery in Chattanooga: “We are about to lift the coffin from the grave.” And with that, the sainthood cause of Father Patrick Ryan, who has the title “Servant of God,” took a crucial step, as the exhumation of his remains for reentombment at the Basilica of Sts. Peter and Paul could proceed.