ROME » At a shop less than 100 yards from St. Peter’s Square, Lisa Santos of Ewa quickly snapped up dozens of religious medals and prayer cards depicting every one of the seven Catholic saints who will be canonized Sunday.

She handed over just more than $36 worth of euros to shop owner Luigi Inglese.

Even though Santos landed in Rome on Friday to witness the canonization of Hawaii’s own Mother Marianne Cope, who cared for Hansen’s disease patients in Kalaupapa, she felt obliged to buy icons representing all of the soon-to-be saints.

Santos, who worships at Our Lady of Good Counsel in Pearl City, plans to give the items to friends and family in Hawaii for "healing, hope — just to have faith," she said.

But Cope-themed rosary beads, medals, posters and hundreds of other items in Inglese’s shop are running third in sales behind items bearing the likenesses of Native American Kateri Teka­kwi­tha, known as the "Lily of the Mohawks," who was marginalized by her tribe when she asked to be baptized at the age of 18; and Pedro Calung­sod, a Filipino lay catechist, who was killed on Guam in 1672 after assisting in a baptism.

That’s because Native American and Filipino shoppers have been showing their saintly preferences on the eve of Sunday’s canonization with their euros, Inglese told the Star-Advertiser in Italian through translator May Ramos.

Asked to list the top-selling saints-in-waiting depicted on his merchandise, Inglese responded without hesitation:

"Yes, yes, Santa Caterina," he said, referring to Kateri Teka­kwi­tha. "Santa Pedro. Then, then Santa Marianna."

Cope is in the top three in sales because, Inglese said, "there’s a lot of Hawaii people here."

Inglese’s Il Santo Rosario "articoli religiosi souvenirs" shop stands at the intersection of Via Del Mas­che­rino and Borgo Pio, within easy walking distance of St. Peter’s Square.

While other shops are closer to Sunday’s canonization action, Inglese said his is the only store that has hundreds of different medals, bookmarks and posters that he personally designed and which represent every saint who will be canonized Sunday by Pope Benedict XVI.

After 30 years in the articoli religiosi souvenirs game, Inglese claims to have a better sense of what buyers like because he also sells his items wholesale to four other souvenir shops surrounding St. Peter’s Square.

"He’s the supplier," Ramos said in agreement.

While in Rome for Sunday’s canonization ceremony, Santos hopes to connect with her aunt, Sister Anne Marie Tama­naha of the Sisters of Sacred Hearts in Hono­lulu.

So out of 28 medals representing every soon-to-be-saint, Santos ended up buying 15 dedicated to Cope.

Otherwise, Santos found herself an equal-opportunity buyer of articoli religiosi souvenirs.

"We’re here for all of them, too," she said.