Elisabeth Hesselblad
Swedish religious foundress (1870–1957)
Feast: 24 April (not on the universal Roman calendar; kept in the Roman Martyrology or local calendars)
The Vatican record
- 14 December 2015 — Miracle through their intercession approved (decree list, 2015)
Who they were
Elisabeth Hesselblad was born in Sweden on 4 June 1870 to a Lutheran family, emigrated to the United States and trained as a nurse in New York. She was received into the Catholic Church in 1902.
In Rome she refounded the Order of the Most Holy Saviour of St Bridget, the Bridgettines. During the Second World War she hid Jews in her convent, and she is honoured by Yad Vashem as Righteous Among the Nations. She died in Rome on 24 April 1957.
The miracles
a two-year-old child — diocese of Santa Clara, Cuba — 2005
A two-year-old child suffered a compression of the brainstem after surgery to remove a brain tumour (a medulloblastoma), and was healed through Blessed Mary Elizabeth's intercession.
Why that counted as sanctity
Beatification followed on 9 April 2000 by John Paul II. The case of a two-year-old child was examined by the Church's doctors and theologians and approved as a miracle on 14 December 2015, opening the way to canonisation. Canonisation followed on 5 June 2016 by Francis.
- Dicastery for the Causes of Saints - decree of 14 Dec 2015
- National Catholic Register - St Maria Elizabeth Hesselblad
- Wikipedia - Elizabeth Hesselblad
- Dicastery for the Causes of Saints — promulgated decrees (causesanti.va), summarised in our own words
- Wikidata Q435384 — dates, feast day and identifiers (CC0)
- English Wikipedia — Elizabeth Hesselblad (CC BY-SA)
Checked against the sources listed on 21 September 2026. Corrections welcome.