Charlene, when you were only twelve years old, you showed heroic faith, hope, and love; dying of leukemia, you joined yourself to Jesus on the Cross and offered your intense pain for others. You thereby echoed St. Paul's words to his people in Collossians 1, 24: "Now I rejoice in my sufferings for Your sake, and in my flesh I am filing up what is lacking in the afflications of Christ on behalf of His Body, the Church."

Charlene, I believe you are with God. Please ask our Heavenly Father, His only Begotten Son, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit to grant me the following favor: (mention favor sought)

Charlene, thank you for helping me. May Jesus Christ always be praised. May Mary, Jesus' Ever-Virgin Mother, always be called blessed.

Our Father in Heaven, moved by the Holy Spirit of Jesus Christ, Your Son and our Savior, we lift up our hearts to You and ask that, if it be Your will, You grant our request. May Your servant and native of Louisiana, Charlene Marie Richard, be raised to sainthood by the Holy Father, Successor of the Apostle St. Peter, and visible head of Jesus' Church on earth.

We entrust this prayer to You through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of Jesus, under her title by which she is known as the Patroness of Louisiana: The Immaculate Conception.

Our Father... Hail Mary... Glory Be

Charlene Richard was born in 1947 in the rural rice farming community of Richard, Louisiana. She was diagnosed with acute lymphatic leukemia and died at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Lafayette, Louisiana on August 11,1959 at the age of 12. 

Charlene would offer all her sufferings and her prayers to God every day for the benefit of others, especially for those that asked her to pray for them. 

The hospital chaplin, Father Joseph Brennan, said, "I see Charlene as a witness for people of all ages to the power of resignation and acceptance of God's will.  She wasn't different in any way except that when the crisis came in her life - and it came very early - she accepted it with faith and trust and love."