In 1935, at the 2nd World Congress of Catholic Nurses, His Holiness Pope Pius XI addressed 2000 nurses assembled at Castel Gandolfo. He expressed concerns about materialism and paganism inserting itself everywhere and efforts to secularize and de-Christianize nursing, efforts to remove Christ from the bedside. His Holiness asked that nurses first and foremost be filled with this supernatural, Christian spirit, making them the bearers of spirituality, of the supernatural.(1) Essentially we should bring Christian Spirituality, Christ to the bedside.

At the CICIAMS 22nd World Congress hosted by NACN-USA The Book of Nurse Saints was released. It is my small effort to help nurses be holy, become saints and also an effort to show how many of our saints worked in infirmaries, as Red Cross nurses, in homes, hospitals, etc. prior to nursing licensure and afterwards.
The biographies are now online, making this reference FREE. The comprehensive online reference contains stories of nurses who have been declared SAINTS, BLESSED, VENERABLE, SERVANT OF GOD, MARTYRS or MYSTICS.

In the biography of Blessed Hanna Chrzanowska, RN, Helena Matoga, MA, RN gives an in-depth account of the actions of the nurses of Krakow, priests, religious and the Catholic Association of Polish Nurses and Midwives (KSPiPP) in collaboration with the hierarchy to advance the cause for her canonization. Helena, now in her 80’s, was a student of Blessed Hanna and fellow instructor at the Krakow School of Nursing and served as the vice postulator for the cause of the canonization of Blessed Hanna. As she advanced the cause forward with a colleague who was a nurse and lawyer, Helena also obtained an MA in history. This is a comprehensive first hand account of what one group did to advance a cause. Blessed Hanna (1902-1973) is the first lay Catholic Registered Nurse (RN) to be beatified.

There are many, many nurses martyred while providing nursing care Martyrs Srs. Agnes Mueller and Barbara Ann Muttra, ASC from the USA, along with three companions, were killed in Liberia. Read about the Sisters of Saint Elizabeth killed protecting their patients following World War II and the many nurses killed during the Spanish Civil War.

Newly added are Martyrs of Charity from the U.S. Civil War. Did you know two Dominican nursing sisters unveiled the monument at President Lincoln’s tomb in 1874 at the request of the, then, President Ulysses S Grant because he was so very impressed by the care provided to both confederate and union soldiers and sailors by sister nurses from over 12 Catholic religious orders? Did you know a truce was actually called during the Civil War in Kentucky to move the body of a 22 year old Sister of Charity of Nazareth (SCN) to her final resting place? Six confederate and 6 union soldiers escorted her body on the ship Peabody to St. Vincent Academy for burial (Martyr of Charity Lucy Dosh, SCN).

Did you know St. Teresa of Calcutta received nursing training from the Medical Mission Sisters (MMS) prior to starting the Missionaries of Charity? An article in her own hand in the MMS archives attests to this. Did you know St. Edith Stein served as a Red Cross Nurse in World War I? Saint Juliana of Liege and St. Bernadette of Lourdes cared for the sick in their convent infirmaries. Bernadette also worked at the Hospital du Lourdes.

In many schools of nursing, students have an assignment to write about a historical figure in nursing. Perhaps this site can help. Let me know what you think (info@nursesaints.com) and perhaps share it with other nurses? Let us continue to bring Christ to our patients and let us all become saints.

The website is: www.nursesaints.com

(1) Pope Pius XI. (1935). Nursing: The Apostolate of Charity. Accessed 17Sep2026. https://nursesaints.com/wp-content/uploads/PPXI-1-Address_to_CICIAMS_II_World_Congress_Rome_1935.pdf

(2) CICIAMS = International Catholic Committee of Nurses and Medico Social Assistants, founded in 1933 and recognized by the Vatican and the Code of Canon Law as a private association of the faithful www.ciciams.org.