Rhoda Wise
Rhoda Wise (1888 – 7 July 1948) was a U.S. stigmatist from Canton, Ohio (originally the Roman Catholic Diocese of Cleveland and now part of the Diocese of Youngstown). Her biography, Her Name Means Rose, was published by EWTN. Rhoda Wise has been associated with many miraculous healings, including the healing of Mother Angelica.[1] The Roman Catholic Church investigated Wise, but made no official decision concerning her experiences. The Rhoda Wise Shrine, which includes her house- which once belonged to EWTN, which Mother Angelica founded and ran- is a private association of the faithful (website: http://rhodawise.com), that has been approved by the present incumbent Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Youngstown, Bishop George V. Murry. As of September 2016, the Diocese is launching the local investigation into a potential cause for beatification and canonization, and so all her visions and writings and activities will be re-examined thoroughly. If the diocesan process concludes she lived an exemplary life, the case for the cause will go to the Vatican, and with their approval, she will be given the title "Servant of God". If the Holy See says she lived an admirable life, she will then also be called "Venerable". Since she is not a martyr, unless the Pope grants some form of exemption, two miracles would then be needed: one for her beatification (being called "Blessed"), and then one for her canonization (sainthood) that must be verified after her beatification (though it can occur before beatification, as long as it occurred after the first miracle happened). St. Peter Catholic Church, in Canton, Ohio, will host the Mass opening the diocesan investigation into Rhoda Wise’s cause for beatification and canonization. Monsignor Robert Siffrin, the Vicar General of the Youngstown Catholic Diocese, will celebrate the Mass on Friday, October 7, 2016, at 7:00 PM.[2]
Although raised a Protestant, Rhoda was received into the Roman Catholic church after one of her stays at a Canton hospital, where a nun told her about the Rosary and Saint Thérèse de Lisieux. Wise experienced her first apparition of Jesus on 28 May 1939 at her home in Canton, wherein he told her that he would come with Saint Therese on 28 June 1939. Wise was cured of her stomach cancer, which had been considered incurable and so she had been sent home to die . On 15 August 1939, Saint Therese is said to miraculously heal Rhoda of a broken foot .
From 1939 to 1948, Wise experienced annual apparitions of Jesus and Saint Therese. Saint Therese would also visit Wise on 2 January, the saint's birthday, every year. Wise became a stigmatist and would bleed on the first Friday of every month. In the last apparition, on 28 June 1948, Jesus asked Wise to say the Rosary daily for the Conversion of Russia .
According to Mother Angelica, Wise led a doubting and ailing Rita Rizzo (Mother Angelica's birth name) in a novena to Saint Therese. At the end of the nine days of prayer, Rizzo's painful stomach ailment disappeared and she eventually became a nun under Wise's mentorship.[1]
Rhoda Wise died on 7 July 1948, which was then the Feast of Saints Cyril and Methodius. Over 14,000 people reportedly attended her funeral.
References
- 1 2 Hoopes, Tom (December 2005). "Love Bears Fruit: The Triumph of Mother Angelica". Crisis Magazine. Retrieved 2007-04-11.
- ↑ http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/this-ohio-mystic-mentored-mother-angelica-was-she-a-saint-90192/