28 Marian Helper • Summer 2026 • Marian.org By Peggy Stanton To celebrate the 250th birthday of the United States of America, join me on an “armchair pilgrimage” across this majestic land in my new book from Marian Press, The United “Saints” of America: On Pilgrimage with Our Mother Mary from Sea to Shining Sea, with a foreword by Fr. Mitch Pacwa, SJ. The United “Saints” of America, you ask? Well, yes! The “big S” saints — those raised to the altar by the Catholic Church — have traversed our land, coast to coast, from St. Isaac Jogues in the East to St. Junípero Serra in the West. There are, however, hundreds of “little s” saints of equal grace, if not equal title, who have left holy footprints all across this land. They helped lay a foundation that has made America “one nation under God” and, in the process, grown an initially persecuted religion — the Catholic faith — to one with 72 million members, making it the single largest religious denomination in the United States. What unites all of them, big S or small, is a great sense of mission and a fierce desire to bring the Good News to a foreign land, most frequently under the guidance of the first bearer of that Good News, missionary extraordinaire, Mother Mary of Nazareth, or, as my special-needs little sister called her, “Heavenly Mommy.” Our Lady is asking you and me to join her here on pilgrimage as we explore all 50 states and the District of Columbia in search of the “saints” who helped make America the beautiful country we celebrate in its sesquicentennial. Heroism and faith As I wrote this book, I was awed and amazed by the zeal, courage, and heroism of the Catholic missionaries, first the Franciscans and then the Jesuit “Black Robes,” as the Native Americans dubbed them. They canoed, rode horseback, and snowshoed across rivers, mountains, and plains in the harshest weather to bring Jesus Christ and His Gospel to ears that had never heard His Name, some losing their lives in the process. I was equally awed by the formidable women who forged paths to build convents, schools, hospitals, and even universities. And proud I was of the laity who gave of their money, property, and time, daring to dream that they could create some of our country’s most beautiful and unusual shrines. Such faith humbled me. It inspired me. It enriched
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