Mother Mary Magdalene Bentivoglio was born Anna Bentivoglio into Italian and French nobility in the mid 1800s. But both of her parents died before her 27th birthday. Since she and two of her sisters were still single, Pope Pius IX took responsibility for them and they were placed in a Benedictine abbey. This experienced compelled all three to desire religious life, but a more austere experience of it. So they became Poor Clares of the Primitive Observance. Ten years after taking their final vows two of them, Mary Magdalene and one of her sisters who had been given the religious name Constanza, were selected by Pius IX to go to the United States to help a third order Franciscan community establish a school. This fell apart shortly after they arrived in the US, and they found themselves stuck in New York City with no money, no plan, and no English. They appealed to the archbishop of New York to establish a Poor Clare monastery in his archdiocese, but he refused. They appealed to other dioceses, but got many rejections until the archbishop of New Orleans welcomed them. But then they were forced to move to Cleveland. Another setback prompted them to go searching for a home again, until John Creighton, the Omaha industrialist and philanthropist, learned of their plight and pledged to build them a monastery in Omaha. Things began looking up, but there were still other trials awaiting them. But through it all, Mother Mary Magdalene brought her stubbornness, and her absolute trust in God's providence, to bear on all hardships and opportunities. She died in the early 1900s. More than 20 Poor Clare monasteries in the United States and Canada trace their roots to the trailblazing faith, zeal, and dedication of Mother Mary Magdalene Bentivoglio. Her cause for canonization was opened in 1929, and when her body was exhumed she was found to be incorrupt. In 1969 she was declared Venerable.

St. Kateri Tekakwitha lived a life marked by tragedy and upheaval, but also a lot of grace and love. She was born to Mohawk Indian parents (though her mother was originally Algonquin), who both died from smallpox when she was four. She survived smallpox, but the disease left her face scarred and her eyesight damaged. Because of this handicap she was called, "She who bumps into things," or in Mohawk, "Tekakwitha." At a young age she pledged to remain a virgin and not get married, which was a very strange and unheard of thing among Mohawk women. After exposure to Catholic missionaries she became Catholic and was baptized with the Mohawk form of the name "Catherine," which is "Kateri." Due to the intense ridicule she suffered for her conversion she left her village and moved to Kahnawake, a village for Native Americans who had become Catholic. Surrounded by fellow Catholics and with a few particular friends who helped her to go deeper into her faith she became even more devout. She died at just 24 years old due in part to lingering health issues from her childhood bout with smallpox.

Charles Carroll of Carrollton was the wealthiest man in the American colonies at the time of the Revolution. He was the only Catholic to sign the Declaration of Independence, and after a long and distinguished career in public service, he was the last of the signers to die. Despite laws outlawing Catholics from holding public office in the Maryland colony he was elected as a delegate to the Continental Congress. He later served as a U.S. Senator from Maryland, and helped to write the Constitution for the new State of Maryland. He served on the board of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad and laid the cornerstone for its construction.