This Black History Month, we honor Sister Thea Bowman, whose cause for canonization has officially advanced. She is now declared a Servant of God — one of the “Saintly Seven” whose lives continue to illuminate the Church in the United States.
The 2022 documentary Going Home Like a Shooting Star: Thea Bowman’s Journey to Sainthood captures what so many already knew: Sr. Thea burned brightly with faith, joy, intellect, and prophetic courage.
Born in Mississippi during segregation, she became a theologian, educator, musician, and tireless advocate for racial justice within the Catholic Church. She insisted that Black Catholic spirituality was not an add-on, not an accommodation — but fully, vibrantly, beautifully Catholic.
She sang the Gospel.
She preached the Gospel.
She called the Church to live the Gospel more honestly.
Even while battling terminal cancer, she addressed the U.S. bishops with tenderness and boldness, asking them to confront racism as a sin — not as politics, but as a matter of faith.
Her life reminds us:
Black history is Church history.
Black joy is holy.
And prophetic love is sanctity.
The saints were “woke” long before culture wars tried to weaponize the word. They were awake to injustice. Awake to suffering. Awake to joy. Awake to the Spirit.
Servant of God Sr. Thea Bowman, pray for us.
🎥 Watch the documentary:
Going Home Like a Shooting Star: Thea Bowman’s Journey to Sainthood
