Morris Twp. nun first to be beatified on American soil
MORRIS TWP. – Sister Miriam Teresa, a Sister of Charity in Convent Station until her death in 1927, will be the first American to be beatified in the United States at an Oct. 4 mass at Sacred Heart Basilica in Newark.
The mass, expected to overflow the 2,000-seat cathedral, will be celebrated by Cardinal Angelo Amato, prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, who will travel from Rome as the personal representative of Pope Francis.
"A couple of years ago, Pope Benedict XVI made the decision that beatifications could take place in the country and the diocese from which the Blessed person came," explained Sister Mary Canavan, vice postulator of the Sister Miriam Teresa League of Prayer, based in Convent Station.
"Up until that point in time, all beatifications and canonizations were in Rome," she added. "This is the first time there's been an American person beatified since Pope Benedict gave that permission."
In the Roman Catholic Church, a deceased person is beatified—and called Blessed—after being declared of heroic virtue and after the Vatican certifies he or she is posthumously responsible for one miracle. The next step—canonization, or sainthood—is bestowed after the Vatican certifies a second posthumous miracle is attributable to the intercession of the person's soul.
In 1975, under Pope Paul VI, St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, who founded the Sisters of Charity in the 19th century, was the first native-born American to be canonized.
"This is a joyful time for everyone in the New Jersey and New York area," wrote Archbishop John J. Myers of the Archdiocese of Newark, from which Sister Miriam Teresa hailed. Born in 1901 as the last of seven children, Miriam Teresa Demjanovich was raised in Bayonne and baptized in the Byzantine Ruthenian Catholic Church. Her parents were Slovakian immigrants.
Typically, the process of canonization takes decades.
In 1945, the Diocese of Paterson opened its investigation into the life and writings of Sister Miriam Teresa, who took her vows on her deathbed before succumbing to appendicitis and peritonitis at age 26. The Motherhouse of the Sisters of Charity of St. Elizabeth, in Convent Station, is part of the diocese.
"It has taken 69 years to come to this point where the church has recognized her heroic virtue and has accepted the cure of Michael Menser as a genuine miracle," Canavan said.
In the 1960s, Mencer, who now lives in the Midwest, was an eight-year-old boy diagnosed with juvenile macular degeneration, New Jersey Catholic Magazine reported this past March. His prognosis was total blindness.
But after his third-grade teacher, a nun, gave him a memento of Sister Miriam Teresa—a picture and a piece of hair—his sight was completely restored, according to Canavan. That was in 1963.
"We don't know whether the memento was applied to his eyes, or whether his mother felt it warm when she touched it and had a sense that everything was going to be good," Canavan said. "Whatever the means were, his cure was tied into his prayers to Sister Miriam Teresa.
"Nineteen ophthalmologists studied his medical records and every one of them said his recovery was medically unexplainable because macular degeneration is irreversible," she added. "His diagnosis was clear and agreed upon by two doctors, but when he went to a third at the Wills Eye Institute in Philadelphia, there was no evidence of macular degeneration of it all, with no treatment."
Indeed Sister Miriam Teresa had poor eyesight, which is how she wound up teaching with the Sisters of Charity. Originally, she'd set her heart on a contemplative Carmelite community in the Bronx, according to New Jersey Catholic Magazine. But the order rejected her because she could not see well enough to sew vestments, which is how the nuns supported themselves.
On Dec. 17 last year, a panel of cardinals and bishops agreed the reversal of Mencer's blindness had come about through the intercession of Sister Miriam Teresa. That very day, Pope Francis declared it an authentic miracle.
"Michael Mencer is coming to the beatification in October," said Jim Goodness, spokesperson for the Archdiocese of Newark.
It's hoped he'll carry the relic of Sister Miriam Teresa in procession during the mass, Canavan said, adding that after the ceremony a search for a second miracle will begin.
"Literally, hundreds of people request favors from Sister Miriam Teresa," said Canavan, the fourth vice postulator in the history of the prayer league, whose mission is to promote Sister Miriam Teresa and move her toward canonization.
"These favors wouldn't count as a kind of miracle that the church requires for official recognition," she added, "but it seems that people have great faith in Miriam Teresa's intercessory powers and ask for and receive favors, large and small."
The nuns are making and have been distributing mementos for Sister Miriam Teresa, using little pieces of her hair and clothing, to those who request them. More formal relics will be made by the office of the postulator, Canavan's counterpart in Rome.
Sister Miriam Teresa's remains had been buried at Holy Family Cemetery on the grounds of the Motherhouse in Convent Station, but, according to New Jersey Catholic Magazine, devotees chipped off pieces as mementoes. In 1979, her body was exhumed and placed in a crypt in the Holy Family Chapel.
"Multiplying the number of saints is not the issue here. Her message is what's important," Canavan said. "Her message is that God grows in us and we grow in God and that this calling is for all people—not just for religious priests, sisters, and brothers. All of us are called to live a holy life, a good life, a life of compassion and kindness to others, to help make this world a better place."
The message is reflected in Sister Miriam Teresa's writings, most notably "Greater Perfection," a compilation of 26 conferences on living a holy life. She wrote them at the direction of Father Benedict Bradley, her spiritual director, who presented them weekly to the novices at the convent. Sister Miriam graduated the College of St. Elizabeth with the Class of 1923, having earned a literature degree, summa cum laude. In her brief life, she also produced two plays, poems, and meditations.
In the years after her death, her friends, taken by Sister Miriam Teresa's prayerfulness, charity, and goodness, kept her memory alive.
Sister Mary Zita Geis, a friend of hers in the novitiate, penned "Sister Miriam Teresa: A Biography," which has been reprinted many times. They also preserved her writings and spread word of her mystical experiences, including having a vision of Mary, the Mother of God, and walking on the convent grounds with the Little Flower, the name given to St. Therese of Lisieux, who died in 1897 at the age of 24.
Local religious figures who will attend the Oct. 4 beatification include Archbishop Myers, Bishop Arthur Seratelli of the Diocese of Paterson, and Bishop Kurt Burnette, eparch of the Byzantine Ruthenian Catholic Eparchy of Passaic.
"All her life, Sister Miriam Teresa was not a Roman Catholic but a member of the Byzantine Ruthenian Catholic Church," Canavan said. "Her parents came from the Ruthenian area of Slovakia, which belonged to the Eastern Church."
When Sister Miriam Teresa entered the Sisters of Charity, she was not required to become a Roman Catholic, Canavan added, saying that might have been the work of God.
"Miriam Teresa is now bringing together both the Eastern and the Roman churches," she said.
Extensive planning is under way for the country's first beatification, only seven weeks away.
"Rome does this all the time," Goodness said. "In America, we're a little new at it."
Lorraine Ash: 973-428-6660; lash@njpressmedia.com
Learn more
For more about Sister Miriam Teresa, visit the Sisters of Charity at http://bit.ly/1BlA8Bc
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