Pope Leo XIV has recognized the heroic virtues of Mother Mary Teresa Tallon, the founder of a U.S. religious order devoted to person-to-person ministry, and declared her venerable, advancing her cause for canonization.

During a June 18 meeting with Cardinal Marcello Semeraro, prefect of the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, the pope also advanced the sainthood causes of several men and women, including 20 Spanish martyrs who died during the Spanish Civil War.

Mary Teresa Tallon was born May 6, 1867, in Hanover, New York, to Irish immigrants. At age 19, she joined the Holy Cross Sisters in South Bend, Indiana, serving for 33 years in the religious community as a teacher in Catholic schools with poor and neglected children.

Founded a new congregation in 1920

In 1920, she founded a new religious congregation, the Parish Visitors of Mary Immaculate, as a community focused on contemplation and personal, door-to-door ministry. As explained in a biography of Mother Tallon on her community’s website, she particularly wanted to “reclaim lapsed and uninstructed Catholics for the heart of the Good Shepherd.”

The biography said that “even as a young girl, she was seen to be magnetic, compelling and persuasive. People were drawn to her and held by her fervor and enthusiasm, especially for the things of God.”

She died in 1954, leaving behind a community that continues its person-to-person ministry in New York, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Delaware, and in dioceses in Nigeria and the Philippines.

The community’s motherhouse is in Monroe, New York, which is in the Archdiocese of New York. Mother Tallon is buried on the grounds of the motherhouse.

Cardinal Dolan officially opened cause in 2013

In 2013, Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan, then archbishop of New York, signed the edict officially opening the diocesan inquiry into Mother Tallon’s life, heroic virtues, reputation for holiness and events attributed to her intercession. That same year, he formally received the U.S. bishops’ support in moving her cause forward.

The other decrees approved by Pope Leo recognized:

— The martyrdom of Spanish Father Juan Torres Torres and 19 Companions, killed “in hatred of the faith” in 1936 during the Spanish Civil War.

— The heroic virtues of Belgian Father Júlio Maria De Lombaerde, a missionary in Brazil who founded several congregations, including the Congregation of the Daughters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. He was born in Waregem, Belgium, in 1878 and died in Brazil in 1944.

— The heroic virtues of Italian Sister Maria Agnese Tribbioli, founder of the Congregation of the Pious Worker Sisters of St. Joseph. She was born in Florence, Italy, in 1879 and died there in 1965.

— The heroic virtues of Spanish Sister Clara Andreu y Malferit (in secular life: Barbara Onofria), a cloistered nun of the Hieronymite Monastery of San Bartolomeo of Inca. She was born in Spain in 1596 and died there in 1628.
The heroic virtues of Italian Sister Maria Petra Giordano, a Dominican nun who lived in the Monastery of Bibbiena, Italy. She was born in 1912 and died in 2006.