Joseph Gérard

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For other people named Joseph Gerard or a related name, see Joseph Gerard.
29 May
AttributesPriest's attire
PatronageMissionaries

Joseph Gérard, OMI (12 March 1831 – 29 May 1914) was a

Basotho people in Lesotho and the Free State province of South Africa.[1] His works in the mission are now attributed to a partial degree to a boom in Catholicism in Lesotho, where he was well-known and regarded for his extensive work; he was even working up until a month prior to his own death just before World War I.[2][3]

His beatification was celebrated in Lesotho on 15 September 1988.[4]

Life

Joseph Gérard was born in

Confirmation
on 24 March 1844.

He received his religious education from the

Marseilles from mid-1852; he then completed them while in South Africa. He was not a gifted academic but rather was quick and adept at learning languages which would help him in learning the Zulu and Sesotho languages that he used for his active work in the missions. Gérard moved to South Africa in 1853 and never returned to his native France
. He made his perpetual vows on 10 May 1852.

The order's founder

Natal vicariate but met with little progress there.[1][4]

In January 1862 he joined Bishop Marie-Jean-François Allard in starting the first Catholic mission in Lesotho since there had existed a

Blessed Virgin Mary on 15 August 1865.[2]
But Gérard's work still progressed at a slow pace: at the end of 1879 there were 700 Catholics in the nation.

In 1875, he founded the Saint Monica mission in the Leribe District in northern Lesotho. From there he serviced the Basotho of Lesotho and also all those who lived in the neighboring Orange Free State. He returned to the Roma congregation in 1898 where he continued his work for the remainder of his life.[3]

He died in mid-1914 after suffering from ill health for at least a month prior to his death.

Beatification

Gérard's spiritual writings were approved by theologians on 25 July 1952.

Congregation for the Causes of Saints on 14 March 1986; a medical board approved it on 3 December 1986 as did theologians on 13 March 1987 and the C.C.S. members on 19 May 1987. Pope John Paul II
approved this miracle on 1 June 1987 and beatified the late priest while on his visit to Lesotho on 15 September 1988.

The current postulator for this cause is the O.M.I. priest Thomas Klosterkamp.

References

  1. ^ a b c d "Blessed Joseph Gerard O.M.I. - Mission in Lesotho". Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate Assumption Province. Retrieved 20 December 2016.
  2. ^ a b c d "Father Joseph Gerard, the Apostle of Basotho". O.M.I. Lesotho Province. Retrieved 20 December 2016.
  3. ^ a b c "Blessed Joseph Gerard". St. Benedict's. Archived from the original on 14 August 2017. Retrieved 20 December 2016.
  4. ^ a b c "Blessed Joseph Gerard". Santi e Beati. Retrieved 20 December 2016.
  5. ^ Index ac status causarum beatificationis servorum dei et canonizationis beatorum (in Latin). Typis polyglottis vaticanis. January 1953. p. 124.

External links

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