A Potential New Saint of the Catholic Church Who Listened to Taylor Swift and the Jonas Brothers
Maria Middleton, a young Catholic from Bucks County in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, died in 2020 at age 18 from complications related to an inoperable brain tumor. Her cause for canonization was opened after consultations with Pennsylvania bishops and a vote by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, recognizing the spiritual impact of her testimony. Middleton began a spiritual journal at age 11 with the words “God is merciful”; her final written words were “Think of Hope.”.
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Maria Middleton, a Pennsylvania teenager who died of an inoperable brain tumor at 18, is the subject of a newly opened cause for canonization. Her family and supporters point to her faith, hope, and concern for others during her illness; she also enjoyed Taylor Swift and the Jonas Brothers. 1
Middleton was born on September 10, 2002, and grew up in Bucks County in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. After consultations with Pennsylvania’s bishops and a vote by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, her cause was opened in recognition of the spiritual impact of her example. 1
Canon lawyer Jeannine Marino submitted a request to Archbishop Nelson J. Pérez on behalf of the Think Hope Foundation. The archbishop received the documents on June 22, with Middleton’s parents, canon lawyers, and diocesan advisers present; the petition is also to be submitted to the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Causes of Saints. 1
Middleton was a student and athlete who began a spiritual journal at age 11 with the words “God is merciful.” Her final written words, recorded before her death, were “Think of Hope.” 1
She was diagnosed on January 30, 2019, with an inoperable brainstem tumor and given a prognosis of nine to twelve months. Her mother said Middleton described the diagnosis day as “the best year of her life,” because she had come to understand that “joy and pain coexist”; during her illness, she tried to focus on the present and on finding joy amid suffering. 1
Her father, Brian, summarized her outlook as choosing “gratitude over anger, meaning over victimhood, and hope over despair.” He said she maintained her sense of purpose—to know, love, and serve God—after receiving her terminal diagnosis. 1
As her condition progressed, Middleton lost her motor skills and later her ability to hear, swallow, and speak. Father Simione Volavola, who supported the family, recalled that she remained a source of peace. 1
Middleton’s family says people around the world have contacted them about how her example strengthened their faith, and that some ask for her intercession. Her mother described her as a model of hope. 1
Even while ill, Middleton thought of others. When she received support from the Make-A-Wish Foundation, she directed it toward helping a girl in Uganda and the girl’s school rather than requesting a gift for herself. 1*
Catholic holiness emerges through hope amid suffering
Catholic holiness can emerge amid suffering because Christian hope enables a person to remain united to Christ, love others, and pursue goodness even when pain cannot be quickly removed. This does not mean suffering is good in itself, that God asks people to endure preventable harm, or that holiness follows automatically from hardship. The Christian response is to resist and relieve suffering where possible, while trusting that suffering does not have the final word.
Christian hope is more than expecting circumstances to improve. It rests on confidence in God and the promise of life with him, even when a particular illness, loss, injustice, or crisis has no immediate resolution. Pope Benedict XVI distinguishes ordinary hopes—such as healing or help from another person—from the deeper hope needed in great trials, when faithfulness to truth or love carries a real cost. Christian hope does not make the smaller hopes unimportant; it sustains people when those hopes are uncertain or unfulfilled.
That hope is grounded in Christ’s solidarity with human suffering. Benedict writes:
It is not by sidestepping or fleeing from suffering that we are healed, but rather by our capacity for accepting it, maturing through it and finding meaning through union with Christ, who suffered with infinite love.
The point is not that pain becomes pleasant or that its causes cease to matter. Rather, a sufferer is not abandoned to face it alone: Christian faith holds that Christ has entered human suffering and is present with those who endure it. That presence can make room for courage, patience, and love without pretending the suffering is easy to explain.
Hardship can deepen hope, but it can also overwhelm, isolate, or embitter a person. Catholic teaching therefore does not treat suffering as a spiritual achievement in itself. What matters is how a person, helped by grace, responds: whether hardship is met with trust, fidelity, compassion, and a continued commitment to the good. Benedict describes suffering for truth, justice, and love as a profound human calling, and says the saints were able to persevere because they were sustained by a great hope.
This is also why the Church insists that people should do what they can to reduce suffering and assist those in pain. Pope Benedict says that suffering should be limited where possible, that pain should be soothed, and that people should be helped through mental anguish. He cautions that accepting unavoidable suffering is not the same as failing to challenge suffering that can be prevented or relieved.
Hope amid suffering is not merely an inward attitude. It can move people toward those who are hurting. In Gaudete et exsultate, Pope Francis describes holiness as refusing to flee from another’s pain: sharing sorrow, understanding anguish, and bringing relief. In that sense, Christian hope is active. It helps a person keep serving when the situation remains painful, and it directs attention both to God and to concrete needs on earth.
This solidarity can also entail suffering for someone else: accompanying a person through grief, defending the vulnerable, or choosing truth and justice even when doing so costs comfort or advantage. Benedict presents such self-giving not as a rejection of human dignity but as one of its expressions. The Christian claim is that love can remain meaningful even when it is costly, because God’s own love has been revealed through Christ’s Passion.
The Church’s hope is ultimately directed toward communion with God, not simply success in this life. In his All Saints’ Day homily, Pope Francis connects the Church’s holiness and hope with the Beatitudes: the path of discipleship may bring problems and persecution, yet it leads toward the encounter with God. He describes the saints as people who continue onward through tribulation with hope of seeing the Lord.
That future does not erase present grief. It gives a reason to resist despair and to keep acting with compassion, courage, and fidelity. The Catholic claim, then, is not that suffering itself makes someone holy, but that grace-filled hope can sustain holiness in the midst of suffering—through union with Christ, perseverance in the good, and practical love of those who suffer.