Blandina Segale

Blandina Segale, S.C., more commonly known as Sister Blandina (23 May 1850 – 23 February 1941) was an Italian-born American Religious Sister 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 for their beatification and canonization.

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 Maddelena, decided to follow her younger sister's example, and also joined the Sisters of Charity, where she was given the name of Sister Justina.

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