Albuquerque, N.M. – CommonSpirit St. Joseph’s Children, the petitioner for the Cause for Canonization for Sister Blandina Segale, opened June 2014. The most recent action on the Cause is the important approval by the Vatican Historians whose vote brings Sister Blandina closer in Canonization which acknowledges her Sainthood.

Archbishop John Wester, Archbishop of Santa Fe; Allen Sánchez, Petitioner; Valentina Culurgioni, Roman Postulator.

A decade of research, interviews, and testimonies is now complete and synthesized in what is called the Positio, the legal argument for Veneration. It is the written document to prove Heroic Virtue and to complete the stage of Venerable. This year, the Vatican Historians reviewed the Positio and voted in the affirmative to advance the Cause. Those votes were included in the printing of the Positio that was recently printed and which is now in the hands of the Vatican Theologians for approval and vote by the Bishops of the Vatican Dicastery for the Cause of Saints.

Sister Blandina was nicknamed the “Fastest Nun in the West” for her valiant work in the Southwest from 1872 through 1901, disarming lynch mobs of not just of their hangman’s noose and guns but also of their hate. The Servant of God is credited with starting the public schools and hospitals in New Mexico and for her extensive work in Ohio with immigrants.

Sister Blandina was an immigrant child born in 1850 in Cicagna, Italy and brought to the United States in 1854: January 23rd, 2025 will be the anniversary of her 175th birthday. At the age of 16, she entered the Sisters of Charity of Cincinnati; at 21 years old, she became a United States citizen, and at 22 she was missioned to the Southwest, beginning in Trinidad, Colorado. She then served in Santa Fe and Albuquerque, New Mexico. In 1932, her diary of her time working in the Southwest was published as “At the End of the Santa Fe Trail”.

Sister Blandina was always ready to recognize the dignity of the human being, from the most innocent orphans to the most guilty outlaws, providing health care services to all. She befriended William Bonney, Billy the Kid, when she gave health care to one of Billy’s friends, and gained admiration from Billy the Kid winning favor with the famous outlaw.

In 1931, at 81 years old, she petitioned the Pope in Rome for the Canonization of Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton, the first American of Saint and foundress of the Sisters of Charity. Sister Blandina and a young woman she saved from the hands of criminals trafficking young girls for prostitution were the first women to testify in the United States Congress on human trafficking.

Sister Blandina is the foundress of the organization which today is CommonSpirit St. Joseph’s Children in Albuquerque, New Mexico, operating one of the largest home visiting programs in the nation. The health care ministry begun by the many congregations of Sisters, including the work of Sister Blandina, is now CommonSpirit Health, the largest non-profit health care provider in the United States, with 145 hospitals in 24 states employing approximately 175,000 people.

Since the Cause was opened in June, 2014, there have been 48 miraculous healings attributed to the intercession by the Servant of God Blandina Segale.

When the Cause was opened in 2014, Sister Blandina received the title of Servant of God. Two Diocesan Inquiries were conducted; evidence was gathered and testimonies were presented to the Congregation for Saints. The Acts of those Inquiries were deemed by the Vatican to have Juridical value. The Positio, which is the document making her Cause for Sainthood, was written by the Postulator in Rome, Advocate for the Candidate, and the Cause has been shepherded by the Petitioner, Allen Sánchez. The Diocesan proceedings were first overseen by Archbishop Michael Sheehan and then by Archbishop John Wester, titled for the purpose of the Cause “The Competent Bishop”.

Sister Blandina died at the Motherhouse of the Sisters of Charity in Cincinnati on February 23, 1941 and is buried at the cemetery of the Motherhouse. Since then she has been the subject of many writings, comic books, and TV programs such as “Death Valley Days” (Episode “The Fastest Nun in the West”). In 2023, CBS produced an Emmy-award winning documentary, “Sister Blandina, a Saint for Cincinnati” for their Ohio stations.

The process of Canonization is:

• OPENING OF THE CAUSE which grants the title of Servant of God
• VENERATION, the proof of Heroic Virtue, which grants the title of Venerable
• BEATIFICATION, the proof of one miraculous healing, which grants the title of Blessed
• CANONIZATION, the proof of a second miraculous healing, which grants the title of Saint

Positio Cover. Contains the evidence of Heroic Virtue and is only read by Vatican officials and the Inquiry Board.

Sister Blandina’s Detailed Chronology

• Born in Cicagna, Italy: January 23, 1850
• Baptism: January 25, 1850
• First Holy Communion / Confirmation (by Abp. Purcell) (St. Peter in Chains Cathedral) April 21, 1861
• Entered the Sisters of Charity of Cincinnati: September 13, 1866
• St. Patrick, 3rd and Mill streets, Cincinnati, OH: September – October, 1868
• St. Mary’s Academy, Dayton, OH: October 1868 – August 1869
• St. Peter, Steubenville, OH: September 1869 – November 1872
• U.S. Citizenship Granted: March 31, 1871
• Public School (and St. Joseph Academy), Trinidad, CO: November 1872 – January 1877 Santa Fe, NM: January 1877 – September 1881
• 1881-1889: Albuquerque:
  • Public School, Old Town: September 1881- 1883 Ministered between Old Town and New Town: 1883 – 1884
  • Superior, Old Town; Directress, New Town, Public School Precinct No 12: August 22, 1885 – 1886
  • (Faculties for both Old and New Town lived in Old Town) St. Vincent Academy, New Town, renamed from Public School District No. 12: 1886 – September 1889

• St. Joseph Academy, Trinidad, CO: September 1889 – September 1892 St. Patrick, Pueblo, CO, Superior: September 1892 – 1893
• SC Opening of Glockner Sanitarium, Colorado Springs, CO  1893
• St. Patrick, Fayetteville, OH, Superior: September 1893 – September 1894 Springer Institute, Cincinnati, OH: September 1894 – January 11, 1895
• St. Gabriel, Cincinnati, OH: January 11, 1895 – September 1897
• Santa Maria Institute, Cincinnati, OH (Founder): September 1897 – March 19, 1933
• Assistance with construction and planning for St. Joseph Hospital, Albuquerque: 1900-1901
• St. Joseph Infant Home, Cincinnati, OH, Superior: September 1901 – January 1902 Opening of San Antonio Church: August 6, 1922
• Rome trip to present petition for canonization of Elizabeth Seton: July 1931
• Book: At the End of the Santa Fe Trail: 1932
• Motherhouse, Mount St. Joseph, OH: March 19, 1933 – February 23, 1941
• Date of death: February 23, 1941
• Book: At the End of the Santa Fe Trail (2nd Edition), 1948
• Edited by Therese Martin McCarthy, SC; Bruce Publishing Company Radio Broadcast: “At the End of the Santa Fe Trail:” 1949
• Comic Book: “Sister Blandina and Billy the Kid,” Topix: 1949
• Radio Broadcast: “Servant of God” on the Ave Maria Hour: February 4, 1951 Dedication: Sister Blandina Convent, Albuquerque, NM: 1955
• Book Chapter: “Stagecoach to Santa Fe,” This is Our Land: 1955
• Article: “Builders of America: Sr. Blandina Segale,” Our Sunday Visitor: 1956
• Article: “Adobe House Honors Storied Albuquerque Nun,” The Denver Post: 1957 Comic/ Article: “Nun in the Southwest,” Maryknoll: 1958
• Play: Saga of the Southwest (performed at St. Vincent Academy): 1958 Article/Comic Book: “They Opened the West,” Treasure Island: 1960
• Article: “Pioneer Nun Helped Tame Wild Frontier,” The New Mexico Register and the Southern Colorado Register: 1962
• TV episode: The Great Adventure: “The Outlaw and the Nun:” December 6, 1963
• TV episode: Death Valley Days: “The Fastest Nun in the West:” January 20, 1966
• TV episode: Death Valley Days: “Lost Sheep in Trinidad:” December 30, 1967
• Play: Cultural Arts in Story by Gertrude Cecile Ratermann, SC: 1969
• Book: Lamy of Santa Fe by Paul Horgan: 1975
• Article: “Santa Maria Founder,” The Cincinnati Enquirer: 1975
• Article: “Italian Catholic Immigrants Carved Niche in U.S. Church,” The Catholic Universe Bulletin: 1976
• Article: “Women’s Role in Shaping State Goes Way Back,” : 1976 Albuquerque Journal Article: “Sister Blandina and Her Crowbar,” U.S. Catholic: 1976
• Article: “Bicentennial Italian-American Catholics,” The New World 1976
• Booklet: “Sister Blandina Segale,” Women in New Mexico Exhibit, Museum of Albuquerque: 1976
• Radio Broadcast: “Sister Blandina Meets Billy the Kid and Other Adventures along the Santa Fe Trail” by Mary Kay Williams: 1982
• Article: “Suor Blandina Segale, la monaca italiana che conquisto’ il West,” il Progresso: 1983
• Article: “The Founding Mother: Sister Blandina, Schooling and Social Welfare 1872-1933” by F. Michael Perko, S.J in Review Journal of Philosophy and Social Science, 12.1: 1987
• Article: Una Suora Italiana nel Far West” by Helen Barolini, Reader’s Digest: 1990
• Book: So Much to be Done: Women Settlers on the Mining and Ranching Frontier by Ruth B. Moynihan, Susan Armitage, and Christiane Fischer DiChamp: 1990
• Book: Voices of American Women: A Documentary History, 1584-Present1992
• Calendar: “Historic Trinidad 1993”: 1993
• Book: The Encyclopedia of Women and Religion: 1993
• Book: Women Educators in the United States, 1820-1993:
• A Bio-Bibliographical Sourcebook by M. Schwartz Seller, ed: Greenwood Press: 1994 Book: Behold the Woman by Dan Paulos: 1994
• Article: “Sister Blandina Segale: The Women Who Built Catholic Healthcare in America”, Catholic Healthcare Association of the United States: 1996
• Book: Una suora italiana nel West (Italian Edition): 1996
• Play: The Trail’s End (The Story of Santa Maria) by Lynne Mancinelli, SC: 1997
• Play: 1873: Christmas in Trinidad by Mary Sue Mangino: 1997
• Dedication: S. Blandina Square in Cicagna, Italy: 1998 Book: At the end of the Santa Fe Trail (UNM edition): 1999
• Article: “Catholic Nuns and the Invention of Social Work: The Sisters of the Santa Maria Institute of Cincinnati, Ohio, 1897 through the 1920s,” by M. Christine Anderson, Journal of Women’s History: 2000
• Book Chapter: “Beggars and Businesswomen,” Say Little, Do Much: Nurses, Nuns, and Hospitals in the Nineteenth Century by Sioban Nelson: 2001
• Radio Broadcast: Lectures by Donatella Aurili Ruggiero (Italian): 2002
• Book: From Pioneer to Nomad: Essays on Italian North American Writing by Leonardo Buonomo: 2003
• Book Chapter: “There are Exceptions to Every Rule: Adjusting the Boundaries – Catholic Sisters and The American West”, American Catholic Studies: 2005
• Play: White Shell Rising from the Sea by Albert DeGiacomo: 2007
• Book: Blood Desert: Witnesses 1820–1880 by Renny Golden, UNM Press: 2010
• Book: Sister, Billy the Kid, and Me: Sister Blandina Segale and the Old West Discipline in the 1950s by James Mesker: 2011
• Dedication: Angelitas de Caridad Sculpture in Albuquerque, NM; October 22, 2011

Biography of the Servant of God, Maria Rosa Segale (Sr. Blandina Segale, SC)

The Servant of God, Maria Rosa Segale (Sr. Blandina Segale, SC) was born January 23, 1850 in Cicagna, Italy. Her family migrated to Cincinnati, Ohio when she was four years old. Her first word as a child was Gesu (Jesus).

On September 13, 1866 the Servant of God entered the Sisters of Charity of Cincinnati. She was sent to work in the newly acquired territories of the western United States in 1872. Arriving first in Trinidad, Colorado Sr. Blandina taught the poor. In 1877 she was transferred to Santa Fe, New Mexico where she cofounded the public and Catholic schools. Her work included starting hospitals in Santa Fe and Albuquerque. Her work in these territories is well documented in the publication of letters to her sister, also a Sister of Charity, called At the End of the Santa Fe Trail.

Other heroic virtues include her tireless work of teaching and healing the immigrant, the marginalized, and the poor, and advocating for women and children. She challenged the occupying government and military in fair treatment of the Native Americans. Sr. Blandina came to the aid of mistreated railroad workers, finding time to care for the sick while building orphanages, hospitals, schools, and trade schools.

Portrait of Billy the Kid, taken by American photographer Ben Wittick, c. 1880.

Her compassion converted hundreds and she even had numerous encounters with the famous Billy the Kid and his band of outlaws. She calmed mobs of armed men from taking the law into their own hands and helped criminals seek forgiveness from their victims.

In 1897 she founded the Santa Maria Institute in Cincinnati, serving immigrants. She led the organization until 1933. The institute is still in operation today, serving the poor and marginalized.

In 1900 Sr. Blandina returned to Albuquerque for two years to help start the St. Joseph Hospital whose mission continues today as CHI St. Joseph’s Children.

Her ministries continue today, over 100 years later, and thousands of poor children receive early childhood services by her continuing ministry. Her life’s work is well documented in the archives of the Sisters of Charity Mother House in Cincinnati.

Sr. Blandina was one of the petitioners of the Cause of St. Elizabeth Seton, and at 81 years old she traveled to Italy to meet with Pope Pius to plead St. Elizabeth’s Cause. The Servant of God died on February 23, 1941 in Cincinnati at the Mother House of the Sisters of Charity at the age of 91. Her last words were Gesu e Madre.

Artist: Arlene Cisneros Sena, Portrait of The Servant of God, Blandina Segale, SC