The round-up for 13 to 19 January. There are no beatifications of which I am aware this week.
Sunday 13 January, the death in Kenya in 2005 of Thomas Richard Heath. From Massachusetts, he was a Dominican priest and educator. On 8 January, the mission compound was seized by robbers and Fr Heath was badly beaten. He died five days later. I’m not aware of a cause for his canonization.
Monday 14 January, I have nothing.
Tuesday 15 January, the deaths in Fort St Louis, Texas, in 1689 of Zenobe Membre, Maxim le Clercq and Abbe Chefdeville. The first two were Franciscan priests and the last a Sulpician priest. They were killed during a Karankawa uprising along with virtually the entire population of the settlement, and as a result this area fell under Spanish rather than French influence. I am not aware of a cause for their canonization.
Also Tuesday 15 January, the memorial of the death in East Texas in 1726 of Luis Montes de Oca. A Franciscan brother, the exact date of his death is unknown. He seems to have died in a prairie fire set by hostile Native Americans while bringing supplies to one of the Texas missions. I am not aware of a cause for his canonization.
Also Tuesday 15 January, among the Breton, the anniversary of the repose of Michel Allard. Born in Brest, he grew up to be a scholar and a Jesuit priest. He was a pioneer in the dialogue between Islam and Christianity and wrote books in both French and Arabic. He was a professor at a university in Lebanon when the war broke out but chose not to evacuate, instead continuing his dialogue between the cultures and his teaching. Sometime in the night of the fifteenth or the sixteenth of January, 1976, he was killed when his apartment was bombed.
Also Tuesday 15 January among the Breton, the death in 1997 in Chad of Christiane d’Herouville. Born in Nantes, she was a doctor and a nun with the Congregation of Xavieres. She served in the Ivory Coast and then in Chad. For unknown reasons, three men stabbed her in her mission, apparently while targeting another nun.
Wednesday 16 January, the death of the Servant of God Dominga Guzman Florit. Foundress of the Dominican Sisters of Fatima, she spent her nearly century-long life in Puerto Rico, though the Order she founded is more widespread, including in Connecticut and Pennsylvania. Her cause was officially opened in 2001.
Also Wednesday 16 January, the death in Bangladesh in 1964 of Richard James Novak. A young priest from this diocese with the Congregation of the Holy Cross, he was a very promising priest working in what was then Pakistan until he got caught up in the fighting between the East and West Pakistan forces during the civil war. I am not aware of a cause for his canonization, but it seems rather a pity there is not one yet.
Thursday 17 January and Friday 18 January, I have nothing.
Saturday 19 January, the repose of the Venerable Servant of God Frederic Baraga. A priest from Slovenia, he was the first Bishop of Upper Michigan, with the newly erected diocese of Sault Ste Marie (today Marquette). He was renowned, as honestly were many priests of his time, for the hundreds of miles he traveled ministering to his flock and for his defense of the Native peoples. His cause has been active for decades but his heroic virtues were just decreed this past May. A possible beatification miracle was sent to Rome in 2010.
Finally, also Saturday 19 January, the death in 1902 in Washington of Mother Joseph, born Esther Pariseau in Quebec. One of the small number of Catholics represented in the National Statuary Hall, she was a nun with the Sisters of Providence and an architect of some renown, also known for establishing medical and educational establishments. I am not certain, but she may be the only nun inducted into the National Cowgirl Hall of Fame. I am not aware of a cause for her canonization.
All the saints, ora pro nobis.
All the martyrs, ora pro nobis.
American Saints 