An Italian-born nun who took on Billy the Kid, corresponded with Thomas Edison and co-founded the first hospitals and schools in New Mexico has been nominated for sainthood.
The board of CHI St. Joseph’s Children in Albuquerque approved a motion last year to petition for the canonization of Sister Blandina Segale, a nun of the Sisters of Charity of Cincinnati. They presented their resolution to Archbishop Michael J. Sheehan, who asked the Vatican for permission to “open the cause” for her beatification and possible canonization.
The official decree granting permission from the Vatican’s Congregation for the Causes of Saints will be posted on the doors of the Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi at 3 p.m. Sunday during La Conquistadora/Our Lady of Peace vespers and procession to Rosario Chapel.
This is the first time in the history of the Roman Catholic Church in New Mexico that a decree opening the cause of beatification and canonization has been declared, according to the archdiocese.
Allen Sánchez, president and CEO of St. Joseph and former parish life coordinator for the archdiocese, said that there will be hearings to determine her “miraculous works” and “heroic virtues” and, “We’re going to learn lots of great stories about her.”
The Vatican named Sheehan “Judge for the Cause;” the Most Rev. Ricardo Ramirez, bishop emeritus of Las Cruces, as postulator; and Sánchez as petitioner.
Rosa Maria Segale was born Jan. 23, 1850, in Cicagna, Italy, and was 4 when her family moved to Cincinnati. Her first word as a child was reportedly “Gesu” (Jesus).
On Sept. 13, 1866, she and her sister, Maria Maddelena, entered the Sisters of Charity of Cincinnati, becoming Sister Blandina and Sister Justina. She taught for a short time in Ohio, and in 1872, at just 22 years old, she was sent to work on the Western frontier. Her first stop was Trinidad, Colo., where she helped build a new public school, stopped a lynching and outwitted The Kid.
One story (or the version by Katie O’Brien in Catholic Heritage Curricula) goes that when she learned that a mob planned to drag a man from the jail and lynch him for shooting another man, she went to the wounded man’s bedside and asked him to forgive the man who shot him and let the law decide the punishment. The wounded man agreed.
Sister Blandina also told the sheriff that she would like the prisoner to ask the wounded man for forgiveness. The sheriff was doubtful, and also feared that the mob would see the man and lynch him.
Indeed, dozens of angry men watched as the sheriff, the prisoner and Sister Blandina walked to the wounded man’s house. But the mob pulled back, and the man’s fate was decided by the courts instead of the law. The story of how she saved the man from a hanging party was told in an episode of the CBS series Death Valley Days in 1966, Sánchez said. It was titled “The Fastest Nun in the West.”
Another story from Trinidad involved Billy the Kid. One of her students allegedly told Sister Blandina that a member of Billy’s gang had been accidentally shot by another outlaw and left to die in an adobe hut. She immediately went to the man and began caring for him, bringing him food and drink and answering his questions about God.
One day, the man told her that Billy and the gang would be arriving that day and planned to scalp the four doctors in the town who had refused to treat his gunshot wound. Billy came into town, met Sister Blandina and thanked her for caring for his fellow gang member. She then said she had a favor to ask of him. She reportedly took his hand and said, “I understand you have come to scalp our Trinidad physicians, which act I ask you to cancel.”
Billy was said to be surprised, but agreed, according to O’Brien’s account.
It’s said Sister Blandina later visited him in jail and once, while she was traveling in a stagecoach, he approached on horseback, frightening the other passengers. He saw her, raised his hat and bowed before riding away.
In 1877, Sister Blandina was transferred to Santa Fe, where she started to work on a three-story hospital that later became known as St. Vincent. It was the first hospital built in the New Mexico Territory.
In 1881, she began a new mission in Albuquerque. Our Lady of Angels, the first public school in New Mexico, opened in September of that year under the direction of the Sisters of Charity. Later, the Jesuits offered the order land for St. Joseph Sanatorium. The sisters also opened the first nursing school, the first schools for X-ray and laboratory technicians, and the first blood bank in New Mexico. By 1883, the St. Joseph Healthcare System included three acute-care hospitals and a rehabilitation hospital, which in 1966 became part of Catholic Health Initiative.
During her years in New Mexico, Sister Blandina cared for immigrants, the marginalized, the poor, and advocated for women and children. According to Sánchez, she challenged the government and the military over the treatment of Native Americans and came to the aide of mistreated railroad workers.
She recorded many of these adventures in letters to her sister published in a book called At the End of the Santa Fe Trail.
She returned to the Cincinnati area, where in 1887 she and her sister founded and managed the Santa Maria Institute — the first Catholic settlement house in the United States. In 1900, she returned to Albuquerque for two years to help start St. Joseph Hospital, known today as CHI St. Joseph’s Children, where poor children continue to receive early childhood services.
Her life is well documented in the order’s archives in Cincinnati. She was friends with Cecil B. DeMille and exchanged letters with Edison that included sketches for new hearing aids.
At age 81, she traveled to Rome to meet with Pope Pius to plead the case for canonization of St. Elizabeth Seton.
She died in 1941 at age 91. Her last words reportedly were, “Gesu e Madre.”
Sanchez said that Sister Blandina has been given the title “Servant of God.” She’s a good candidate for both beatification and sainthood, he believes, in part because her life is “well-documented.” According to Sánchez, her heroic virtues are “still inspiring people today.”
The “hard part” is coming up with two miracles since her death, he said, one needed for beatification and the second for sainthood.
Contact Anne Constable at 986-3022 or aconstable@sfnewmexican.com.