Maria Kaupas, who founded the Sister of St. Casimir in Scranton in 1907, was being considered for sainthood in 1999 when the future Pope Leo XIV visited the Motherhouse as part of that process.
Mother Maria died in 1940 and her body was exhumed in 1999 from the Sisters’ plot at St. Casimir Cemetery, which follows church rules when someone is being considered for sainthood.
The sarcophagus was brought to the Motherhouse, 2601 W. Marquette Road, where it currently resides.
The then-Rev. Robert Prevost visited the Motherhouse and blessed her remains and the mosaic depicting her life that adorns the wall above her sarcophagus.
In 2010, she was found to have lived a life of heroic virtue by the Congregation for the Causes of Saints in Rome and was declared Venerable.
