Sister Blandina
Blandina Segale, SC, more commonly known as Sister Blandina (23 January 1850 – 23 February 1941), was an Italian-born American Sister of Charity of Cincinnati and missionary, who became widely known through her service on the American frontier in the late 19th century. During her missionary work, she met, among others, Billy the Kid and the leaders of the Native American tribes of the Apache and Comanche. She served as an educator and social worker who worked in Ohio, Colorado and New Mexico, assisting Native Americans, Hispanic settlers and European immigrants. The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Santa Fe has opened a process to canonize Segale, for which it has received the permission of the Holy See. For this, she is honored by the Catholic Church with the title of Servant of God. She is the first individual in New Mexico's 400-year history with the Roman Catholic Church to have a cause opened by any diocese or archdiocese located in New Mexico for their beatification and canonization. Venerable Alphonse Gallegos, whose cause for canonization in 2005 was opened by the Diocese of Sacramento, was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Life She was born Rosa Maria Segale in 1850 in Cicagna, Genoa, then part of the Kingdom of Sardinia. She emigrated at age four with her family to the United States, where they settled in Cincinnati, Ohio. She had felt called from an early age to join the Sisters of Charity of Cincinnati. She did so at the age of sixteen, when she was clothed in the habit of the Sisters and given the religious name of Sister Blandina, in memory of St. Blandina, martyred in 177 during the reign of Marcus Aurelius. On December 8, 1868, she completed the novitiate and professed religious vows for the first time. Her sister, Maria Maddalena, decided to follow her younger sister's example, and also joined the Sisters of Charity, where she was given the name of Sister Justina. Segale was sent to teach in the schools of Steubenville and Dayton. It was there that she received notice on 27 November 1872, at the age of twenty-two years, she was being sent as serve as a missionary in Trinidad. At first thinking she was being sent to the Caribbean, she soon learned that her assignment was in Trinidad, Colorado, where the Sisters of Charity of Cincinnati had recently opened a mission. She was later transferred to Santa Fe, where she co-founded public and Catholic schools throughout the area. During her time in New Mexico, she worked with the poor, the sick and immigrants. She also advocated on behalf of Hispanics and Native Americans who were losing their land to swindlers. Segale traveled alone on dusty trails and railroads, through the unexplored lands of the far Southwest, finally reaching Trinidad, a frontier mining town, on December 9, 1872. After opening a school almost alone, her first action was to fight against the common practice of lynching. She came to learn from one of her students that