The Re-Unified Triumphal Arch

Solemnity: June 29

St. Peter and St. Paul, the original Patrons of our Parish from 1880 to 1898, are prominently featured on the lower foundational level of the Triumphal Arch. Their inclusion not only honors their pivotal roles in the early Church but also reflects their enduring legacy as cornerstones of our faith community. This historical representation connects us to our roots and underscores the timeless relevance of their teachings and sacrifices.

Feast Day: July 14

 The first Native American to be canonized a saint by the Church.  Algonquin by birth but raised by the Mohawks, she is also known as the Lilly of the Mohawks.  She is associated with outsiders, exiles, orphans, and people ridiculed for their beliefs. She is also patroness of Indigenous people, patroness of ecology and ecologists.

Feast Day: May 10

A priest of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, he was ordained in the Cathedral of Honolulu in 1864, he was eventually sent to minister on the Island of Molokai, where the government had established its Leper Colony.  He helped to raise the residents up from their physical sufferings, while making them aware of their worth as beloved children of God. St. Damien contracted Hansen’s Disease (Leprosy) himself and died intimately united to those for whom he had spent his life.  He is considered patron of those with leprosy, those suffering from HIV/AIDS, those who are bullied, and all those cast out by society.

Feast Day: September 5

She once said, “By blood, I am Albanian. By citizenship, an Indian. By faith, I am a Catholic nun. As to my calling, I belong to the world. As to my heart, I belong entirely to the Heart of Jesus.”  By an act of Congress, she was granted Honorary Citizenship in the United States in 1996 (one of only 8 so honored, two of whom were granted it while still living – the other being Winston Churchill).  On June 12, 1995, while visiting Atlanta for the opening of the gift of Grace House, where her Sisters, to this day, minister to homeless women with HIV/AIDS within our parish boundaries, Mother Teresa attended Mass and spoke here at the Basilica.  She is the patroness of World Youth Day and the Missionaries of Charity. intimately united to those for whom he had spent his life.  

Feast Day: November 13

The first United States citizen to be canonized.  In 1897, she was made Prioress of the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart.  At the urging of Pope Leo XIII, Frances traveled with six sisters to New York City to work with the thousands of Italian immigrants.  In 35 years, Mother Cabrini founded 67 institutions dedicated to caring for the poor, the abandoned, the uneducated and the sick.  She is the patroness of immigrants.

Entered eternal life on July 9

Tolton was the first black Catholic priest in the United States. Tolton was ordained in Rome in 1886. Assigned to the Diocese of Alton (now the Diocese of Springfield in Illinois). Tolton first ministered at his home parish in Quincy, Illinois before opposition from local White Catholics and Black protestants caused discord. Reassigned to Chicago, Tolton led the development and construction of St. Monica’s Catholic Church as a Black “national parish” completed in 1893 at 36th and Dearborn Streets on Chicago’s South Side.  Soon after, he died of a heat stroke at the age of 43 in 1897.

Tolton’s cause for canonization was opened in 2010, and he was declared Venerable by Pope Franics in June 2019.

Feast Day: November 16

A German Benedictine Nun, Abbess, Theologian and Mystic of the 13th century, lived her spiritual life in deep personal union with Jesus and his Sacred Heart.  Once, in deep prayer, she had a mystical vision on the Feast of John the Evangelist: as she rested her head near Jesus’ wounded side, she could hear the beating of his heart. She then asked St. John if he too, felt the beating of Jesus’ Divine Heart on the night of the Last Supper when he had laid his head against Jesus’ chest. He told her he was saving this revelation for a time when the world needed it to rekindle its love. To distinguish her from another Abbess and Saint by the same name, Pope Benedict XIV gave her the title, “the Great,” making her the only woman saint to be so-called.