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| Servant of God Rhoda Wise |
Rhoda Greer was born on February 22, 1888, in Cadiz, Ohio, the sixth of eight children. Raised in a Protestant family, she eventually made her home in Canton. Her life would include marriage, motherhood, bereavement, poverty, and prolonged illness. Years later, people would travel to her modest house seeking prayer and encouragement. The woman they came to see had learned about suffering through the difficult circumstances of her own family life and failing health.
Her first husband died after only six months of marriage. In 1917, she married George Wise. They adopted a baby girl who died before her first birthday, then welcomed another adopted daughter, Anna Mae, in 1922. George’s alcoholism brought additional hardship into their marriage. Rhoda’s responsibilities as a wife and mother continued amid financial insecurity and grief. These family struggles formed an important part of the life that later became associated with extraordinary spiritual experiences.
During the 1930s, Rhoda underwent surgery to remove a large abdominal tumor. Later operations left her with a wound that would not heal. A serious ankle injury also made walking painful and required repeated casts. During a lengthy stay at Mercy Hospital in Canton, she became interested in the Rosary and asked one of the religious sisters to teach her to pray it. She also learned about Saint Thérèse of Lisieux. After receiving instruction, Rhoda entered the Catholic Church on January 1, 1939.
Bishop James McFadden confirmed her in her hospital bed that March. On May 8, she returned home after doctors considered her condition incurable. In her written account, Rhoda described an appearance of Jesus beside her bed on May 28. She reported another encounter with Jesus and Saint Thérèse on June 28, followed by the complete closing of her abdominal wound. In August, she recorded a further experience involving Saint Thérèse, after which she said she could walk without crutches.
These reported experiences became central to Rhoda’s spiritual life and attracted visitors to her home. Beginning in 1942, accounts describe bleeding wounds on her forehead, followed later by wounds on her hands and feet. Those who witnessed them understood them as the stigmata, wounds resembling those of Christ’s Passion. Her writings and the testimony surrounding these events became part of the material gathered for her cause. Their supernatural character remains a matter for the Church’s discernment.
Rhoda’s devotion centered on the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the Rosary, and Saint Thérèse. She sought to offer her suffering for the salvation of souls, especially for priests and members of religious communities. People gathered at her house, where she accompanied others facing their own difficulties. The Diocese of Youngstown remembers her as a woman whose suffering was joined to enduring hope. Her desire to bring people closer to Christ gave purpose to the years that followed her conversion.
Among those who visited was a young woman from Canton named Rita Rizzo, later known as Mother Angelica. Rita suffered from a debilitating stomach condition and came seeking help. Rhoda encouraged her to pray a novena. Accounts of Rita’s life describe a sudden recovery after she followed that advice, an experience that helped direct her toward religious life. She eventually entered the Poor Clares of Perpetual Adoration and founded EWTN. Rhoda’s influence thus became part of the story behind a worldwide Catholic apostolate.
Rhoda died on July 7, 1948, at sixty. Her daughter Anna Mae continued welcoming visitors to the family home, preserving it as a place of prayer. Interest in Rhoda’s life endured long after her death. Her cause for beatification formally opened in the Diocese of Youngstown on October 7, 2016. The diocesan investigation concluded in July 2018, and its documents were sent to Rome for further examination.
In July 2026, her postulator announced that the Positio, the detailed presentation of her life, virtues, and reputation for holiness, had been submitted to the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints. Rhoda remains a Servant of God as that examination continues. Her story offers a witness to prayer and perseverance within the burdens of family life and illness. In the modest home where she lived and suffered, visitors continue seeking the consolation and hope that she found in Christ.
