Canonization cause for Mother Angelica’s spiritual mentor, Rhoda Wise, reaches next step

The canonization cause for Servant of God Rhoda Wise crossed another hurdle after formal documents that outline her life, heroic virtues, and holiness were submitted to the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Causes of Saints.

Wise — who was born in 1888 in Cadiz, Ohio, and died in 1948 in Canton, Ohio — was a laywoman and a mystic who received visions of Jesus Christ and St. Thérèse of Lisieux. In 1939, she reported a miraculous healing of her stomach cancer and a wound that doctors told her was incurable.

She was raised Protestant but was introduced to Catholicism by religious sisters during her hospital stay, where she developed a strong devotion to the rosary and St. Thérèse.

After news of the miracle spread, hundreds of people visited her home weekly, with whom she would pray. Hundreds of those who visited her home both during and after her lifetime reported miraculous, unexplained healings , including EWTN Founder Mother Angelica, who developed a close friendship with Wise after being healed of a stomach ailment.

Wise also had a visible stigmata — which resembles the wounds Christ had at the Crucifixion — that appeared on her body from noon until 3 p.m. for two and a half…