Denver Catholic

18 AUGUST 8-21, 2015 | DENVER CATHOLIC Around the Archdiocese With grateful apprecia on for the ministry of From Father Ma , the Staff and Parishioners of St. Joseph Catholic Parish, Golden, CO file:///C|/Users/Terrih/Pictures/Kodak Pictures/Picture1.gif[7/28/2015 1:41:04 PM] Deacon Ed Clements Deacon Dennis Langdon C M C L and its parish community wish to recognize and express our heartfelt appreciation to Deacon Mickey Webre & Deacon Mike Fletcher for their dedicated service to our parish. May God continue to bless you and your families! T V U W FOR OUR DEACONS… Deacon Harold Kimble and Deacon John Riviera With our most heartfelt appreciation for the faithful and committed work you do for us. May God bless you both. From the Staff and Communities of Our Lady of the Valley - Windsor and St. Mary - Ault St. Mark Catholic Church in Westminster and its parish community wish to recognize and thank Deacon Gordon Hudec Deacon Sidney Atencio for their devoted service to our parish. May God bless you and your families! Come for a day or week Book your next event with us More than just retreats… 719-258-1600 for Tour or Reservations www.eltesororetreat.org Archdiocese of Denver Mortuary 12801 W. 44th Ave. Wheat Ridge, CO 80033 (303) 425-9511 Mt. Olivet Cemetery 12801 W. 44th Ave. Wheat Ridge, CO 80033 (303) 424-7785 St. Simeon Cemetery 22001 E. State Hwy. 30 Aurora, CO 80018 (720) 859-9785 • Professional, personalized service • Respectful • Compassionate The Archdiocese of Denver Cemeteries and Mortuary Caring for the faithful in Northern Colorado since 1893 in their most personal time of need. B illy the Kid, a notorious bank and stage-coach robber of the Wild West, met his match in the most unlikely of people when he met Sister Blandina Segale. According to legend, and to Sister Blan- dina's journal and letters, one of Billy the Kid's gang members had been shot and was on the brink of death when the doc- tors of Trinidad refused to treat him. Sister decided to take him in and cared for him for three months, nursing him back to health. But Billy the Kid (William Leroy) was still unhappy. Word got out that the outlaw was coming to town to scalp the four doc- tors of Trinidad in revenge. When he arrived, Sister Blandina intervened, and convinced him to call oŒ his mission on behalf of his man she had saved. After that incident, Sister Blandina and Billy the Kid became friends. She once visited him in jail, and he once called oŒ a stage-coach robbery as soon as he realized sister was one of the passengers. When she wasn't calling oŒ outlaws, Sister Blandina was founding schools, building hospitals, teaching and caring for orphans and the poor, and advocating for the rights of Native Americans and other minorities. Her heroic virtue and enduring works are why her cause for sainthood was opened in New Mexico last summer, earning her the title "Servant of God" and allowing people to ask for her intercession. Since then, several documents have come to light corroborating her stories, and the necessary miracle for the next big step— beatifi cation—seems to be well on its way. "Sainthood isn't about an award, it isn't about honoring, it's about helping the faithful know that there is a source of God's grace being worked on Earth," said Allen Sanchez, president and CEO for CHI St. Joseph's Children in Albuquerque, which Sister Blandina founded. Sanchez also serves as the petitioner for the cause of Sister's sainthood and has studied her life extensively. SISTER STOPS A LYNCH MOB To open a cause for sainthood, exam- ples of heroic virtue of the person must be shown. The specifi c example of heroic virtue that her petitioners are using involves another story that could only take place in the Wild West; the story that earned her the title "The Fastest Nun in the West" from a 1966 CBS feature on the incident. Sister Blandina was teaching school in New Mexico when one of her pupils told her, "Pa's shot a man, and they're going to hang him." That's when Sister Blandina went to work. She met with the shooter, and was able to convince him to write a confession. She then met with the dying man, and con- vinced him to forgive his shooter in person before he passed away. After the two men were reconciled, Sister Blandina then had to face down the lynch mob that was coming to kill the shooter, who, because of sister, was instead taken to the circuit court and was given life in prison. After nine months, he was released to go back home to care for his four children. "She disarms them from their guns, their hanging rope and their hate," Sanchez said of sister and the lynch mob. THE NEXT STEP In order to be beatifi ed—one step away from canonization—there needs to be proof of an otherwise inexplicable mira- cle brought about through that person's intercession. "We know of a baby that was born pre- maturely with a malfunctioning valve in the heart and collapsed lungs," Sanchez said. "This family immediately contacted us, said they were praying the Sister Blan- dina novena for the baby. The doctors had very little hope for the baby living, but four days later they couldn't fi nd the problem in the heart, it was as if it didn't exist to begin with. Doctors are saying it's inexplicable, so we're pursuing that, there's many sto- ries like that that are being pursued to see if Sister Blandina was involved." Nuns, guns and the Wild West—the tale of Sister Blandina BY CATHOLIC NEWS AGENCY Sister Blandina Segale

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