Pope Francis has advanced the sainthood cause of U.S. Sister Rose Hawthorne, the daughter of Nathaniel Hawthorne, one of the greatest fiction writers in American literature who is best known for writing “The Scarlet Letter”. The pope signed a decree attesting to the heroic virtues of Rose Hawthorne, a convert to Catholicism, who founded the Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne, who have provided free care to cancer patients in need for more than a century.
The pope also recognized the martyrdom of a German priest executed by the Nazis and a German nun and her 14 companions who were raped and murdered by Russian soldiers during World War II. To read more about Sister Rose and the list of decrees the pope approved in 12 sainthood causes, click here.