Between 1939 and her death in 1948, Wise reported seeing regular visions of Jesus Christ and Saint Thérèse of Lisieux in her Canton home.

She then married George Wise in 1917, and the couple continued to live in the Canton area and adopted two daughters, one of whom died in infancy.

George Wise was an alcoholic and changed jobs frequently, resulting in financial hardship and embarrassment for the family.

The Wise family lived at seven different addresses; by the early 1930s, they were occupying a three-room "depression shack" house near the Canton city dump.

[3][4] Beginning in the early 1930s, Rhoda Wise developed serious health problems, including a 39-pound ovarian cyst that had to be surgically removed, and a broken foot which failed to heal properly and caused her to suffer pain and difficulty in walking.

In late 1933 she was briefly committed to the state mental hospital by her husband, where she was diagnosed with post-operative psychosis stemming from her surgeries.

Wise further reported that in August 1939, Saint Therese miraculously healed her injured foot, causing the heavy cast then on it to split and fall off in the process.

[11] In November 2012, the Diocese of Youngstown began to conduct an informal investigation into the life and writings of Rhoda Wise to determine if she might be a candidate for sainthood in the Roman Catholic Church.

[13] Following this investigation, in 2016, Bishop George V. Murry of the Diocese of Youngstown declared Wise a Servant of God, the first step on the path to sainthood.

[16] The Rhoda Wise Shrine, including the house, grounds and prayer chapel, is now a private association of the faithful that was approved for visitors' devotions by Bishop Murry of the Diocese of Youngstown.