The two women, who both lived in the United States, were among numerous individuals whose sainthood causes were advanced by decrees authorized by Pope Benedict XVI on Monday.

Sister Grace Anne Dillenschneider, vice postulator for the Cause for the Diocese of Syracuse, told CNA on Dec. 19 that the date for Bl. Cope’s canonization has not yet been confirmed.

The Congregation for the Causes of Saints had already approved Bl. Cope’s second official miracle, which involved the medical recovery of a woman in Syracuse who was cured of a fatal and irreversible health condition.

Born in western Germany in 1838, Bl. Marianne Cope entered religious life in Syracuse, N.Y., where she served as a teacher and principal and established two hospitals before traveling to Hawaii, where she spent several years caring for lepers.

She died in 1918 and was beatified in 2005.

Bl. Kateri Tekakwitha, known as "the Lily of the Mohawks," was born in 1656 in upstate New York.

Her father was a Mohawk chief and her mother was an Algonquin who was raised Catholic.

A smallpox epidemic killed both of her parents and left her with poor eyesight and a badly disfigured face at a young age.

Despite objections from her relatives, she was baptized at age 20, after meeting several Catholic priests.

An outcast from her community, Bl. Tekakwitha lived a life of deep prayer, with a strong devotion to the Blessed Sacrament.

She died in 1680 at the age of 24. Witnesses said that the scars on her face disappeared after her death.

Bl. Tekakwitha was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1980, the first Native American to be declared blessed.

On Dec. 19, Pope Benedict also authorized promulgations recognizing miracles attributed to the intercession of 10 other individuals, allowing them to move forward towards beatification or canonization.

In addition, he recognized the martyrdom of more than 60 individuals, including priests, religious and laymen, who can now move forward in the process towards beatification.

The Pope also approved decrees recognizing seven individuals as having lived out heroic virtue and being venerable. These individuals will each need a miracle attributed to their intercession before they can be beatified.

St. Edmund Campion

Denver, Colo., Oct 23, 2011 / 07:49 am (CNA/EWTN News).- On October 25, the Catholic Church honors the 40 Martyrs of England and Wales, who died resisting the royal takeover that gave rise to the modern-day “Church of England” in the 16th and 17th centuries.

When Pope Paul VI canonized the 40 saints in 1970, he looked forward to “the day when, God willing, the unity of the faith and of Christian life is restored” in the once-Catholic nations, with due respect for “the legitimate prestige and the worthy patrimony of piety and usage proper to the Anglican Church.”

Contrary to some popular understandings, King Henry VIII did not strictly intend either to form a separate Protestant church, or to obtain a divorce. Rather, on account of his desire for an annulment of a marriage judged valid by the Pope, Henry declared himself “supreme head” of the English Church.

It was only gradually, under the influence of the renegade archbishop Thomas Cranmer that Henry's “Anglicans Ecclesia” took on its distinctly Protestant character – losing, in the process, most of the seven sacraments that the disgraced king had once defended against Martin Luther's attacks.

Henry VIII's “Act of Supremacy,” however, effectively defined supporters of papal authority as criminals guilty of treason against the crown. Under the subsequent reigns of Edward VI and Elizabeth I, the same sentence fell on those who defended the Mass, the priesthood, and many of the sacraments.

The resulting decades of persecution, between 1535 and 1679, represented one of the most brutal persecutions of the Church since its first centuries under the Roman Emperors. Convicted Catholics typically died by hanging, after suffering torture meant to make them betray “accomplices” in the faith.

Priests, however, often received the penalty of “drawing and quartering.” This involved being dragged to the site of execution, and hanged by a noose for a duration that typically caused torture but not death. This was followed by mutilation, disembowelment, beheading, and cutting of the body into four parts.

The martyrs honored on Oct. 25 represent a fraction of the dead, who number at least in the hundreds. Out of the 40, 13 were diocesan priests, and 20 more belonged to religious orders including the Augustinians, Benedictines, Brigittines, Franciscans and Jesuits.

Seven of the 40 martyrs were laypersons, including three mothers of children. Jesuits – whose strict orthodoxy and evangelistic zeal particularly threatened the Anglican establishment – account for one-quarter of the 40 martyrs.

Of the 40 martyrs celebrated on Oct. 25, the best-known may be the Jesuit priest St. Edmund Campion, who left Anglicanism and spent time in Ireland before making his way back to England with the intention of bringing his countrymen back to their traditional faith.

Both Campion’s life and his gruesome death prompted some Anglicans to embrace the truth for which he sacrificed himself. St. Henry Walpole, for instance, not only witnessed Campion’s death, but had his own clothing stained with the martyr’s blood in a moment that led him toward conversion.

Laypersons who gave aid and shelter to priests and religious were also subject to death, under a 1583 law. St. Margaret Clitherow, a laywoman who is among the 40 canonized martyrs, had Masses secretly offered at her home. For this “crime,” she died by being crushed to death with an 800-pound weight.

At present, the Catholic Church in England celebrates the 40 Martyrs of England and Wales on a different day than the rest of the Roman Catholic Church, May 4, having combined their feast day with that of 240 other English martyrs beatified by Bl. John Paul II.

Even this great “cloud of witnesses,” however, does not represent the full extent of the persecution that occurred during the English Reformation.

As a note on the English liturgical calendar explains, “the number of those who died on the scaffold, perished in prison, or suffered harsh persecution for their faith in the course of a century and a half cannot now be reckoned.”

KRAKOW, Poland, OCT. 4, 2011 (Zenit.org).- St. Faustina Kowalska may become the fourth woman doctor of the Church.

Cardinals and bishops gathered in Krakow-Lagiewniki for the 2nd World Congress of Divine Mercy have sent a letter to Benedict XVI requesting this recognition.

This news was published live last Sunday by Radio Esperance, which is transmitting the conference through its stations, through WorldSpace satellite and through the Internet.

Polish St. Faustina Kowalska (1905-1938) would join Spanish Carmelite Teresa of Avila, Italian Dominican Catherine of Siena, and French Carmelite Thérèse of Lisieux, the only three women recognized as doctors.

After praying the Angelus in St. Peter's Square last Sunday, Benedict XVI addressed a message to the close to 2,000 participants in the congress, making reference to its topic.

"Dearly beloved, reinforce your trust in the Lord through common reflection and prayer so that you will take effectively to the world the joyful message that 'mercy is the source of hope,'" he exhorted.

Following the message was the announcement of an Italian-language letter with signatories including some of the prelates present, among them Cardinals Stanisław Dziwisz, Franciszek Macharski, Stanisław Ryłko, Audrys Juozas Backis, Philippe Xavier Barbarin, Christoph Schönborn, and Joseph Zen.

These prelates thanked Pope Benedict XVI for the beatification of the "Servant of Mercy" John Paul II.

And they added a request: that he allow the opening of the cause to recognize St. Faustina as a doctor, to promote the message of Divine Mercy worldwide.

Cardinal Dziwisz announced that participants in the congress would be invited to sign the petition in favor of the recognition.

Just last August, Benedict XVI bestowed the honor of doctor of the Church on St. John of Avila, who will become the Church's 34th doctor.

St. John of Avila -- not to be confused with St. John of the Cross, who was St. Teresa of Avila's partner in reforming the Carmelites -- is known as the Apostle of Andalusia. He is the patron of Spanish diocesan clergy.

Benedict drew sustained applause from the seminarians, priests, bishops and cardinals gathered in Madrid's main cathedral when he announced that he would "soon" declare St. John of Avila a doctor of the church. Such a title is reserved for those churchmen and women whose writings have greatly served the universal church.

There are currently 33 such doctors, including St. Augustine, St. Francis de Sales and St. Teresa of Avila. Pope John Paul II added St. Therese of Lisieux to the list in 1997, the last time one was proclaimed.

St. John of Avila, who lived from 1500-1569, is the patron saint of Spain's diocesan clergy and was considered one of the greatest preachers of his time. In announcing his decision, Benedict appeared to be giving the priesthood—tarnished by the clerical sex abuse scandal—a model of holiness, intellectual rigor and piety.

"In making this announcement here, I would hope that the word and the example of this outstanding pastor will enlighten all priests and those who look forward to the day of their priestly ordination," Benedict said.

He made the announcement during a Mass for thousands of seminarians gathered in Madrid for World Youth Day. He urged them to be sure of their vocation and be "completely determined" to exercise it. Benedict began the day by hearing the confessions of four young pilgrims.

Later Saturday, Benedict is to preside over a vigil service with the estimated 500,000 young people who have gathered in Madrid for the weeklong religious festival that culminates Sunday with a final Mass on an airport field. It isn't clear if media estimates that 1 million people might attend will bear out. Organizers noted Saturday that during previous such festivals the number of participants nearly tripled as the final Mass approached.

Under a hot sun, thousands of pilgrims began heading to the Cuatro Vientos airfield for the evening vigil. Many plan to spend the night there to secure a spot for Mass Sunday morning. Organizers urged them to keep cool and rehydrate amid temperatures hovering around 36C (97F).

Overnight, riot police once again clashed with protesters opposed to the pope's visit, charging several groups that had been trying to reach the Puerta del Sol square late Friday.

Several hundred protesters had gathered outside the Atocha train station aiming to march toward Sol but were stopped before they reached their destination by police blocking the route.

St. John of Avila, a mystic born to a wealthy family who gave up his money once he became a priest, is one of the patron saints declared for World Youth Day. He is known for his theology of the priesthood and is particularly revered in Spain and Latin America, said the Rev. Antonio Pelayo, a Spanish priest who attended Saturday's Mass.

"He lived during a difficult period in the church's history when the clergy was very relaxed and somewhat dissolute, something that pained him a lot," Pelayo said. "St. John of Avila developed a theology for the priesthood which enabled the church to grasp and refine an important element of popular religiousness."