The "The Fastest Nun In The West" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Just finished writing my story that I posted a few weeks ago that talked about Billy The Kid and his gang known as The Regulators.  While checking a few sites for information on Billy The Kid I came across another interesting person by the name of Rosa Maria Segale, better known as Sister Blandina Segale who was a Sister of Charity in the Catholic Church in the late 1800's and early 1900's.  Seems that she was one of the very few people who had gained the respect of the outlaw Billy The Kid.  

Sister Blandina, the Fastest Nun in the West"

It was on September 13, 1866 that Sister Blandina entered the Sisters of Charity of Cincinnati and six years later was sent to work in the wild west, the newly acquired territories of the United States.  She first arrived in Trinidad, Colorado where she taught the poor.  Five years later she was transferred to Santa Fe, New Mexico where she co-founded the public as well as Catholic school in the city.  She also was given credit for starting hospitals in both Santa Fe and Albuquerque.  As well as completing all these feats, she taught, healed the immigrants, the marginalized, the poor and advocated for women and children.  She also challenged the military and government concerning the treatment of the Native Americans.  She was also given credit for aiding mistreated railroad workers, finding time to care for the sick while helping build orphanages, hospitals, schools and trade schools.  She was given credit for converting countless people to Christianity.  Now, I have read article after article about the virtues of Sister Blandina, who was born in Italy but immigrated to the United States at the age of four, and have found that everything I have written has been well documented.  Sister Blandina was an American wonder woman!  And, all this documentation will be needed, since on June 26 of last year, the Archdiocese of Santa Fe, New Mexico announced that the Vatican had agreed to open a cause for the sainthood of Sister Blandina Segale, a Sister of Charity who served in frontier towns founding and teaching in schools, starting hospitals and acting as a force for peace in the "Wild West."  The Archbishop of Santa Fe will oversee the preparation of the official case for sister Blandina's canonization which will then be presented to the Vatican's Congregation for the Causes of Saints.  As far as Sister Blandina's encounters with one William Bonney, known as the famous western gang leader "Billy The Kid," it seems that in 1876 she provided care for one of Billy's henchmen, who had been shot during a quarrel with a fellow outlaw and left to die.  The town's four physicians didn't want anything to do with the injured while Sister Blandina visited him frequently over the next few weeks, offering him physical and spiritual comfort.  When Billy found out what had happened he planned to kill the doctors.  After meeting Sister Blandina, Billy offered to repay the favor and she asked him to spare the lives of the four physicians, which he did.  On another occasion, when Billy and his gang attempted to rob a covered wagon in which she was traveling, he looked inside and saw her.  After recognizing who it was, he tipped his hat and rode off in deference to her safety and the debt he owed her.  You may remember, as I did, the 1966 episode of the CBS series "Death Valley Days", which was titled The Fastest Nun in the West, which focused on her efforts to save a man from being hanged.  Sister Blandina was a legend in the Old West just as much as Billy The Kid was.  At the age of 81 she made a visit to Italy to see Pope Pius to plead the cause of Sister Elizabeth Seton to sainthood.  It is now the task of others to plead her cause to sainthood.  Sister Blandina Segale died on February 23, 1941 in Cincinnati, Ohio at the Mother House of the Sisters of Charity at the age of 91.  Her last words were Gesu e Madre (Mary, mother of Jesus).  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.