AMERICAN MYSTICS (CONTINUED)

MARIE ROSE FERRON often called the Little Rose was born in 1902 in Quebec. Her family (she was the 10th of 15 children) moved to Massachusetts when she was two and then later to Woonsocket, Rhode Island. She was a stigmatist, mystic, visionary, and victim soul who died in 1936 at the age of 33. She was a parishoner of the Holy Family Church in Woonsocket which at the time was experiencing a movement, known as the Sentinelle Affair. The movement eventually led to the excommunication of 56 members of her diocese from the Catholic Church. Since it was widely known that Marie Rose was a suffering soul, she was asked by Bishop Hickey to offer her sufferings for the Sentinellists whom he felt were greatly in need of this form of intercession. She offered her sufferings with gratitude. And through her sufferings, the 56 members of the Sentinelle Affair were lifted of their status of excommunication. 

Additionally, Little Rose received one of the greatest gifts a human can experience - the presence of Jesus, Mary, and the saints in the earthly life. At an early age, Little Rose was healed of a leg problem by (Bl) Brother Andre of Montreal, who was known for healing. 

Little Rose, age 7

During her teenage years, Marie Rose became ill with a mysterious paralysis and painful contraction of the muscles in the legs, feet, arms and hands, and also an intestinal problem which rendered her practically unable to eat and she also contracted Tetanus  and Pyorrhea. Due to the progression of the paralysis in her legs, she was eventually completely bedridden.

In life, Little Rose was given the stigmata and a crown of thorns. This was first visible, but Little Rose feared pride because she knew pride was a destroyer of mystics. She begged  Jesus to make the stigmata hidden, which He did. Though she felt the pains of the stigmata and crown of thorns, it was not visible. At the time of Little Rose's death in 1936, one of the branches of the crown of thorns and the thorn stigmata was still visible. This was photographed, and later published in the book, She Wears a Crown of Thorns, written by Rev. A.O. Boyer, the spiritual director and confessor of Little Rose.

Rose at the time of her stigmata

Following her death a letter was issued by Bishop Russell J. McVinney which attempted to put at ease the minds of many who wished to see Marie Rose beatified. He undertook two investigations and concluded that there was nothing extraordinary about her life. However, many believe that these investigations hung on the witness of only three members of the community. Many miracles have been documented to date through the intercession of Little Rose, and exhumation of her remains eleven years following her death showed her to be incorrupt. Meanwhile, many continue to believe that Marie Rose Ferron is a powerful intercessor in heaven.

 Concerning suffering, she once said: "Grind up all your sufferings in the mill of patience and silence; mix them with the balsam of the Passion of the Savior; make them into a small pill and swallow it with faith and love and with the fire of charity, digest it.

Little Rose with "crown of thorns"

ANOTHER ROSE


RHODA WISE born in 1888  was a mystic and stigmatist from Canton, Ohio. Her biography, Her Name Means Rose, was published by EWTN. Rhoda Wise has been associated with many miraculous healings, including the healing of Mother Angelica.

Rhoda and her husband  George

Although raised a Protestant, Rhoda was received into the Catholic Church after one of her stays at a Canton hospital, where a nun told her about the Rosary and St. Thérèse de Lisieux. Rhoda experienced her first apparition of Jesus on 28 May 1939 at her home in Canton, where He told her that He would come with St. Therese on 28 June. Rhoda suffered from stomach cancer, which had been considered incurable and so she had been sent home to die, but she was cured.
 

St. Therese as Rhoda saw her

From 1939 to 1948, Rhoda  experienced annual apparitions of Jesus and St. Therese.  Rhoda became a stigmatist and would  bleed on the first Friday of every month. In the last apparition, on 28 June 1948, Jesus asked her to say the Rosary daily for the Conversion of Russia.

According to Mother Angelica, Rhoda led a doubting and ailing Rita Rizzo (Mother Angelica's birth name) in a novena to St. Therese. At the end of the nine days of prayer, Rita's painful stomach ailment disappeared and she eventually became a nun under Rhoda's mentorship.

Rhoda Wise died on 7 July 1948. Over 14,000 people reportedly attended her funeral.

“In my personal judgment she was held in high favor by God.”  Monsignor Habig said at the eulogy; “In the midst of a sinful world, holiness is still cherished.
Rhoda Wise was truly a holy soul with her heart filled with a love for God so great 
that she was able to endure the greatest suffering for His sake.”

Rhoda and her daughter Anna Mae

“I submit my poor judgment to that of the Church, but it is my personal conviction that what she stated about the many apparitions of Our Lord and the Little Flower is true, and that she was highly favored by the Lord.”

In the years following Rhoda’s death, her daughter, Anna Mae kept Rhoda’s home open to visitors. When she died in 1995, the home became the property of Our Lady of the Angels Monastery because it is such an important part of Mother Angelica’s story.

“This place is to be a shrine and cures more wonderful than your own will take place on this spot.”  (Our Lord to Rhoda Wise on April 3, 1940.)