See the faces of the two newly canonized American saints

Today, on October 21, the Pope proclaimed the heroic virtues of two new American saints of the Holy Catholic Church.

(Only known portrait from life of Saint Tekakwitha, circa 1690 by Father Chauchetière)

One is Kateri Tekakwitha, the Native American Indian who heroically lived a life of purity and chastity amid the terrible debauchery of the Mohawk tribe.

The other is Mother Marianne Cope, a 19th century Franciscan nun who worked with the famous Saint Damien in Molokai to care for leprosy patients.

May these two new American saints help us to value true virtue and especially heroic chastity in a world that flaunts every type of vice.  Also, may they obtain graces for us to reject the cowardice and shame that is practiced today by which people who should be speaking up against the spread of vice remain silent, which allows these vices to advance unchallenged.