American Holiness: 5 Catholic Witnesses Who Served the Vulnerable with Courage
- Guest Contributor
- Jul 27
- 6 min read
Whether protecting the Eucharist, serving leprosy patients, defending Native peoples, caring for the cancerous poor or rescuing prisoners of war, these Catholics show what heroic service looks like.
By Laura Becerra
Youth Ministry Coordinator
Archdiocese of Denver
In every age and time, though much differs and changes, one thing remains steadfast: God raises up saints to manifest his loving kindness to his people. He inspires people to live holy lives, following him even to the Cross, in love for God and neighbor.
The same is true here, on our shores. In the United States’ 250 years, the Lord has called individuals, both canonized and uncanonized, to follow him and to lay down their lives for their neighbors.
And we are called to do the same.
Venerable Leo Heinrichs
Father Leo Heinrichs’ story hits close to home since he served locally, at a parish in Denver. A native of Germany, he joined the Franciscans at 19, later fled religious persecution, immigrated to New Jersey, and was ordained a priest in 1890.
In New Jersey and New York, where he served for several years, Father Heinrichs is remembered for his compassionate ministry to his people. He cared for the sick during a smallpox epidemic in one parish and led efforts to rebuild a church, school, convent and monastery destroyed in a fire at another.
In September 1907, he made his way across the country to St. Elizabeth of Hungary Parish in Denver, where he would serve for only five months. As he distributed Communion on February 23, 1908, Father Heinrichs was gunned down by Giuseppe Alia, who received and spat out the Eucharist before killing the priest.
To the end, Father Heinrichs was known for the care he gave to the poor, his fellow priests and the parishioners at the churches he served. He died as a protector of the Holy Eucharist.
St. Damien of Molokai
Born in Belgium in 1840, Jozef de Veuster was the second of eight children. After his brother entered the seminary, Jozef wanted to follow in his footsteps and later joined the same order, the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts, taking the new name Damien.
Before his brother could be sent on mission to Hawaii, he became ill, prompting Damien to petition to be sent in his brother’s place. Though his superiors were initially hesitant, they eventually granted permission, and he arrived in Hawaii as a lay brother in 1864. Shortly after, he was ordained a priest in Hawaii on May 21, 1864.
After ordination, Father Damien was assigned to a mission in North Kohala, Hawaii, where he spent 8 years ministering to the hundreds of Catholics in the area. He would even carry a portable altar and a makeshift tent so he could say Mass wherever he was.
These years of mission would prepare him well for what God had in store. After the Hawaiian government assigned Molokai as a leper’s island, the local bishop asked his priests if any would volunteer to minister there. Father Damien quickly offered to go, and there he would serve until the day he died from leprosy.
Through his devoted ministry to the forgotten of Molokai, Father Damien brought the light of Christ into despair. He served his neighbors with the gifts God had given him, and he loved them until the end.
St. Junípero Serra
This Spanish-born saint, canonized by Pope Francis on September 23, 2015, during a visit to Washington, D.C., was a Franciscan missionary priest known for his fervent preaching. Throughout his ministry in what would become California and the western United States, St. Junípero Serra zealously shared the Gospel with all those he met, working especially with Native Americans in the region.
Injured as a young priest, St. Junipero suffered intensely from his crippled leg but would use no remedies, instead offering up his pain for the salvation of souls. He would also serve as a great defender of the rights of the Natives that he served and loved, especially in the face of abuses by Spanish soldiers, particularly of women. St. Junipero Serra even traveled to Mexico City to report these abuses and corruption to the viceroy, demanding that the human rights of the Natives be respected and upheld.
Throughout his ministry, he was a passionate preacher, a voice for the voiceless and a defender of the poor.
Venerable Mary Alphonsa Hawthorne
The youngest child of Sofia Peabody and American author Nathaniel Hawthorne, Rose Hawthorne converted to Catholicism alongside her husband in 1891. She was no stranger to suffering throughout her life: her husband struggled with alcoholism; her one son tragically died of diphtheria, a bacterial infection; and her marriage ended in separation a few years before her husband’s passing.
Even still, Hawthorne desired to commit herself to working for the common good. She went to school to study nursing and became passionate about serving those who are ill.
“A fire was then lighted in my heart, where it still burns,” she once said of her newfound vocation. “I set my whole being to endeavor to bring consolation to the cancerous poor.”
She went on to found the Servants of Relief for Incurable Cancer, now known as the Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne, a group of religious sisters dedicated to serving the poor and sick. She became the order’s first mother superior, taking the name Mother Mary Alphonsa.
Through her ministry — and that of her sisters after her — many of the forgotten sick were shown the face of Christ. A courageous woman, Venerable Mary Alphonsa Hawthorne demonstrated heroic virtue and an unshakeable faith in God while serving those around her.
Servant of God Joseph Verbis Lafleur
Born in Ville Platte, Louisiana, Father Joseph Verbis Lafleur was ordained a priest in 1938. Three years later, he petitioned the diocese to allow him to enter the U.S. Army Air Corps to become a military chaplain, which was granted, and he was assigned to the Philippines.
Shortly after, on the day after Pearl Harbor, the Japanese attacked the Philippine base on which Father Lafleur served. He bravely went to work, running from bunker to bunker to find the wounded and attend to them, administering last rites, praying with them and bringing any wounded to the doctors to receive medical attention. When the Japanese ultimately took over the Philippines a few months later, after several more harrowing attacks, Father Lafleur became a prisoner of war. He was taken to a prisoner camp, where, for years, he helped convert 200 men to Catholicism and offered the sacraments in secret.
But when the Japanese learned that the U.S. would return to attempt re-taking the Philippines, they forced 750 prisoners of war onto “hell ships,” packing them in with standing room only for three weeks. American forces ultimately attacked the ship, which failed to fly a white flag or a prisoner of war flag, firing two torpedoes.
In the minutes that followed, Father Lafleur helped shepherd 83 men up a ladder and overboard to safety, absolving each of them as they went. Last seen helping a fellow soldier to safety, Father Lafleur died on the ship.
For his bravery, he was posthumously awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, two Purple Hearts and the Bronze Star, some of the United States’ highest honors. But beyond civic recognition, all 83 survivors remember Father Lafleur for his incredible heroism, love for God and relentless service, which kept him on that ship to save so many lives.
The American Saints of Tomorrow
What incredible stories of these saints and witnesses who, with their trust firmly placed in God, answered the call to serve country, community and family. Whether called to protect the Eucharist with our lives like Father Heinrichs, serve the sick and poor like St. Damien or Venerable Mary Alphonsa, evangelize like St. Junípero Serra, or courageously rescue others like Father Lafleur, we are absolutely called to great things!
God calls each of us to a definite service; he has a specific, beautiful plan for our lives. This is a reason for great hope!
So, let’s not wait any longer. I invite you to consider how God may be calling you to serve right where you are. Pope St. John Paul II explains that each of us has this desire in our hearts:
“It is Jesus who stirs in you the desire to do something great with your lives, the will to follow an ideal, the refusal to allow yourselves to be grounded down by mediocrity, the courage to commit yourselves humbly and patiently to improving yourselves and society, making the world more human and more fraternal.”
We must not live for ourselves alone, but for others. This is where we will find true happiness. Who knows, maybe 250 years from now someone like me will be writing about your story of sanctity and how God used you to impact our nation, your community and those around you!
