America has Founding Fathers. A Catholic saint was a Founding Mother

Americans know the names of the founders almost by reflex: Washington, Jefferson, Adams, Hamilton, Franklin.

Ask the country to name a "Founding Mother," however, and the room usually goes quiet.

That may be because we still tend to think of America’s founding as something accomplished only in statehouses, battlefields, and constitutional conventions. We celebrate the men who built the republic’s political framework, while often overlooking those who helped shape its moral character.