There’s an unfolding story decades in the making, with its roots in rural Central Louisiana, eventually leading to the very steps of Vatican City inside Rome. This story involves the powerful claim of sainthood based on the deeds of a 12-year-old girl.
Charlene Richard may have been born in Acadiana, Louisiana but her story has spread far beyond her birthplace since her death 66 years ago. Only two weeks before she died in 1959, doctors diagnosed her with acute lymphatic leukemia. Charlene was hospitalized at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Lafayette. In that brief time, and continuing ever since then, Richard would come to be known as the “Little Cajun Saint.”
A growing number of faithful believe she answers prayers from beyond the grave. As the Louisiana Radio Network reports, Nanette Reiners, president of the Charlene Richard Foundation, says church leaders at the Catholic Dioceses of Lafayette and Alexandria have now submitted evidence of the unexplainable happenings that have occurred as a result of Charlene’s intercessions…