Pope Leo XIV advances sainthood causes, including Dutch nun who served in Missouri

(OSV News) — Pope Leo XIV issued decrees advancing the sainthood causes of five candidates, including a Dutch nun who served in St. Louis in the early 20th century.

During a meeting April 27, with Cardinal Marcello Semeraro, prefect of the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, the pope signed a decree recognizing the heroic virtues of Carmelite Sister Teresia of the Most Holy Trinity, born Teresa Ysseldijk, who died from an illness just a little over six years after arriving in the United States.

Born in the Netherlands in 1897, she entered the Carmelite Sisters of the Divine Heart of Jesus at age 19 and professed her vows in 1919. Eager to join her missionary sisters, the young nun traveled that same year to the United States.

However, she fell ill and was diagnosed with severe kidney disease. Despite her illness, she continued to serve at her convent in St. Charles, Missouri. According to her congregation’s website, Sister Teresia “wanted to serve God in the order, working in silent union with Him.”

“When work was no longer possible, she bore her pain silently, hidden from the world,” the congregation said. She died March 10, 1926 at age 28.

The other decrees approved by Pope Leo recognized:

— The martyrdom of Spanish Father Emanuele Berenguer Clusella, Montfort Brother of St. Gabriel Estanislao Ortega García and 48 companions, killed “in hatred of the faith” in 1936 during the Spanish Civil War.

— The offering of life of Spanish missionary Pedro Manual Salado, a lay member of the “Hogar de Nazaret” association, who died in 2012 in Esmeraldas, Ecuador, when he collapsed after rescuing seven children drowning at sea.

— The heroic virtues of Mother Maria Eletta di Gesù, an Italian Discalced Carmelite, who was born in Terni, Italy, in 1605 and died in Prague in what is now known as the Czech Republic in 1663.

— The heroic virtues of Italian Sister Maria Raffaela De Giovanna, founder of the Congregation of the Tertiary Minim Sisters of Saint Francis of Paola. She was born in Genova in 1870 and died there in 1933.

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