Stark County sainthood case heads to Vatican

me here in the 1940s when I was a little girl,” said Mary Lou Kuemerele, a shrine volunteer from Louisville. “I remember seeing her in the bed, and people outside the house and in the yard.”

While talking, Kuemerele held up a dried rose petal encased in glass. The petal bears an image of a woman, whom the faithful believe is St. Therese.

“There are so many acts of grace still happening here,” said shrine secretary Michelle Kirsch. “She just wanted to give her life and service to the Lord. She wanted to do his will, and not what she wanted. She wanted to give all of her suffering to him.”

The shrine is now a stop on the “Mother Angelica Tour” sponsored by St. Raphael Bookstore and WILB Catholic Radio (1060 AM).

Long before she became a nun, the former Rita Rizzo, a Canton native and founder of Eternal Word Television Network, claimed to have received a divine healing after visiting with Wise on Jan. 8, 1943.

In 2001, EWTN and Our Lady of the Angels Monastery, which Mother Angelica also founded, assumed ownership of the house. In 2014, they donated the property to a local nonprofit board set up to operate and maintain the shrine.

A portrait of Jesus, which Wise commissioned, hung in Mother Angelica’s bedroom for 20 years. The painting is now on display in the shrine.

In 2016, the Catholic Diocese of Youngstown issued a proclamation that Bishop George V. Murry and diocesan officials found no objection to the activities at the shrine.

Murry designated the property as the “Private Association of the Faithful,” in accordance with canon law, meaning it has the official support of the diocese for educational programs and activities in support of Catholicism.

Wise continued to experience heavenly visitations and stigmata until about two weeks before her death from acute hypertension at 60. More than 14,000 people attended her funeral Mass at St. Peter’s.

Saturday’s Mass and ceremony will be live streamed on Facebook through the Living Bread Radio Network. The shrine and grotto will reopen at 1 p.m.

For more information, visit www.rhodawise.com or the shrine’s Facebook page, or call 330-453-0222.