Visiting Rhoda Wise

Charisse Tierney shares the story of Servant of God Rhoda Wise and why a visit to Rhoda’s home in Canton, Ohio, is sure to be a memorable pilgrimage. 

I didn’t know what would happen when I sat in the chair. It was a chair in which Servant of God Rhoda Wise had seen Jesus sit many times. He had appeared in her tiny bedroom as she lay suffering. From the humble kitchen chair that is now painted gold, He had spoken with her, blessed religious articles for her, and reassured her.  

His presence can still be felt in her home. I thought that sitting in His chair would magnify that feeling — that it would bring the sweet consolation of His embrace, if but for a moment.  

But what actually happened as I sat down was completely unexpected. 

Humble Beginnings  

We were nearing the end of a 16-day family vacation, driving back towards our home in Kansas after visiting my husband’s family in upstate New York. We drove down the quiet residential street in Canton, Ohio, eager to visit the home of a future canonized saint.  

Soon we saw it. A small house that alluded to Rhoda’s humble beginnings, with a small grotto next to it that quietly reminded visitors of her holiness. It was in this house that Rhoda lived and died. It was in this house that she suffered after complications from removing a 39-pound ovarian cyst. It was in this house that her seven years of suffering brought forth the fruits of God’s grace in miraculous ways. 

Removing a 39-pound cyst in the 1930s before antibiotics was risky, but Rhoda came through the surgery and was sent home. Over the course of the following months and years, Rhoda suffered pain from postoperative adhesions, had her gall bladder removed, underwent surgery for a partially obstructed bowel, and endured a badly infected leg due to a misstep into a sewer. Her foot was left turned inward, and she resigned herself to walking with crutches.  

Rhoda was in and out of hospitals for both her physical and mental health. During her hospital stays, Rhoda was introduced to the Catholic faith by the sisters who cared for her. The Saint Benedict medal, the novena to Saint Thérèse of Lisieux, and the Rosary became favorite devotions of hers, and she longed to enter fully into the Church. On January 1, 1939, Rhoda was brought into the Catholic Church from her hospital bed.  

Another stomach surgery soon followed, and doctors were unable to properly close Rhoda’s abdomen due to a lack of tissue from all of her previous surgeries. Doctors ultimately declared the oozing, burning wound irreparable and sent Rhoda home to die.  

Rhoda remained faithful to her devotions and her Catholic faith as she suffered at home. She was in constant pain, struggled to sleep, and felt like a burden to those who frequently changed the dressing on her open wound. But she persisted in praying for relief.  

Miraculous Healing  

It was during this time of fervent prayer and suffering that Jesus first appeared to her. “He was gloriously beautiful,” she wrote in her diary.  

When Jesus appeared a second time, Saint Thérèse was with Him. As Rhoda’s diary said,   

She [Saint Thérèse] put her hand on my stomach and said, "You doubted me before. You have been tried in the fire and not found wanting. Faith cures all things." I looked at my stomach. I was entirely healed. 

Saint Thérèse returned another time and also healed Rhoda’s turned foot. Rhoda walked to Mass without her crutches the very next day.  

As word spread about Rhoda’s miraculous healing, visitors came by the thousands to see her. They gathered in droves on the evenings when Jesus was expected to visit Rhoda, that they might bathe in the holy light that glowed from her bedroom window when He was present.  

Over the next several years, hundreds of people who visited Rhoda were healed, both in body and soul. One especially notable healing was that of a stomach ailment in a young woman who would later be known as Mother Angelica. 

Along with her joy in giving all to Jesus came much suffering. When she suffered the stigmata every Friday for a time, many made pilgrimages to pray with her, but unbelievers also came and tried to poke pencils into the holes in her hands to prove it wasn’t real. Her home was even broken into once when she was out and many of her beloved religious statues and articles were smashed into pieces.  

Rhoda left this world on July 7, 1948. She once said,   

When I was cured, I consecrated my life to Him, to do with as He willed. I have renewed that vow and asked that I be nailed to the cross with Him, and drink from the chalice with Him also … I want to save souls and I am willing to pay the price. (Diary)

How does one suffer like she did, only to ask for more? This question of how to suffer well is one that enters my thoughts almost daily. I was wrestling with it as I sat in the golden chair.  

I sat in the golden chair, Jesus’ chair, and Rhoda’s statues and images of the saints on her home altar in the room suddenly snapped into sharp focus. I could still feel Jesus’ presence in the room, but it was the saints to which my attention was unexpectedly and firmly drawn. As I looked at each one, they seemed nearly alive.

I remembered with detailed clarity how devotion to the Infant of Prague had given us strength when my baby daughter had open-heart surgery. I looked at Saint Thérèse and remembered how close I had grown to her while guiding my young children and their friends. I gazed at the Blessed Mother and felt her love for me as my earthly mother gradually slips further into the realm of dementia. 

Jesus is our desire, but it is the saints who are there to help us get to Him. He gives us this ever-growing communion of strength and support. This is what brings us through times of suffering. The saints are there to remind us that it’s worth it. That He is always worth it. That, one day, our suffering will end forever, and if we have managed by our example to bring just one soul with us, we have succeeded. 

Resources 

Learn more about Rhoda Wise at RhodaWise.com. 

Are you inspired to make a pilgrimage to Canton? Be sure to also visit the Mother Angelica Museum and the Poor Clares of Perpetual Adoration monastery where Mother Angelica was a member of the community soon after professing her vows. 

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Copyright 2025 Charisse Tierney
Images: copyright 2025 Charisse Tierney, all rights reserved.