Rose Hawthorne Lathrop, a convert to Catholicism who founded a religious order dedicated to caring for terminal-cancer patients, was officially proposed as a candidate for sainthood yesterday by Cardinal Edward Egan. 

Lathrop founded the Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne, who run six homes in five states that offer free care to those with terminal cancer. Among them is the Rosary Hill Home in the hamlet of Hawthorne, named after Lathrop's father, the author Nathaniel Hawthorne. 

The order, founded in 1900 and based in Hawthorne, requested in October 2001 that the Archdiocese of New York promote canonization for its foundress. Egan, as the archbishop where the order is based, determined that Lathrop has earned a "reputation of sanctity" and yesterday began the formal process of establishing a committee that will research Lathrop's life and virtues. 

Egan pledged that the archdiocese will do all it can to advance the cause for Lathrop, "whose spiritual daughters are a source of much grace and inspiration for all of us." 

"They are known, admired, and loved by thousands of the faithful, especially the families and friends of cancer victims for whom they have cared with professional skill and unlimited kindness," he said. 

Egan named the Rev. Gabriel O'Donnell, a Dominican friar, as postulator, or leader, of the campaign for Lathrop's sainthood. O'Donnell also heads the push for sainthood for the Rev. Michael J. McGivney, who founded the Knights of Columbus in 1882. 

Lathrop, Nathaniel Haw-thorne's youngest daughter, was born in Lenox, Mass., in 1851, the year after her father wrote "The Scarlet Letter." She was educated in London, Paris, Rome and Florence, Italy, and married George Parsons Lathrop, who became assistant editor of The Atlantic Monthly. 

Lathrop became a published writer and poet. But her life of privilege would soon lose its appeal. 

In 1881, her 5-year-old son died. She and her husband moved to New York City and converted to Catholicism in 1891. But their marriage soon broke up, and Lathrop found herself taking a course at the New York Cancer Hospital. 

At the age of 44, Lathrop moved into a tenement in the Lower East Side to work with poverty-stricken cancer victims. She met Alice Huber, an art student who read about Lathrop's work, and the two founded the Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne. Lathrop took the religious name Mother Alphonsa. She died in1926. 

"She was a very educated and socially placed person, who gave it all up to take care of people dying of  cancer," O'Donnell said. "It's a remarkable story and the kind of witness we need today." 

Over the next several years, O'Donnell and others named by Egan to work on the cause, including an historian and archivist, will comb through Lathrop's original writings and everything written about her.
O'Donnell said they will go through those archives to try to determine if Lathrop lived a virtuous life, was recognized as a holy person and if there is any evidence tying her to a miracle. 

The process for seeking a candidate's canonization in the Roman Catholic Church is long and uncertain, often outliving those who begin the work. Should O'Donnell and the new committee succeed in showing that Lathrop lived an heroic life, the Vatican would then begin its own research. 

On the road to sainthood, Lathrop would first have to be declared "venerable," or worthy of being a role model for Catholics. The next step is beatification by the pope, which requires, among other things, that a miracle be attributed to Lathrop's intercession. 

The final step to sainthood normally requires that a second miracle be attributed to the candidate. 

"The feeling in our community is that mother's life was special and needs to be recognized," said Mother Marie Edward, superior general of the Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne. "Certainly, we as a community knew her to be a person of great holiness. But we feel she was a great gift to the church and to the world." 

The number of Catholic saints has soared under Pope John Paul II, who has created more saints during his 25-year pontificate than all previous popes combined. John Paul II has canonized 464 saints and beatified an additional 1,303 "blesseds," who are eligible for future sainthood. 

Mother Teresa will be added to the ranks of the blessed when she is beatified on Oct. 19. The famed caretaker of Calcutta's poor, who died in 1997, is so far on an unprecedented fast track to sainthood. 

When John Paul II was elected in 1978, there were 285 saints and 565 blesseds, according to a 1988 study by the Vatican. 

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