Servant of God Joseph Verbis Lafleur, The Priest Who Stayed with His Men

 

Servant of God Joseph Verbis Lafleur 

Joseph Verbis Lafleur was born on January 24, 1912, in Ville Platte, Louisiana, to Agatha and Valentine Lafleur. From childhood, he wanted to become a priest. At seven, he began serving as an altar boy. His family moved to Opelousas in 1926, where he spoke to the pastor of Saint Landry Church about entering the seminary. The vocation he had expressed as a boy would eventually carry him far from Louisiana.

He entered Saint Joseph’s Minor Seminary in 1927 and later continued his formation at Notre Dame Seminary in New Orleans. Ordained in 1938, Father Lafleur celebrated his first Solemn High Mass in his home parish of Saint Landry. His first assignment was as assistant pastor at Saint Mary Magdalen Church in Abbeville. There he began the parish ministry that preceded his decision to volunteer as a military chaplain.

In 1941, Father Lafleur joined the Army Air Corps. Assigned to the 19th Bombardment Group, he traveled to the Philippines, where his unit was stationed at Clark Field. His responsibilities included celebrating Mass, administering the sacraments, and caring for the spiritual needs of the servicemen. Within months, the approaching war would place those responsibilities amid bombardment, retreat, and captivity. The young parish priest had become a chaplain to men facing extraordinary danger.

On December 8, 1941, Japanese aircraft attacked Clark Field. Father Lafleur moved among the wounded, helped carry men to safety, assisted those providing medical care, and offered spiritual comfort to the dying. His commanding officer later remembered his disregard for personal safety and the encouragement he gave the soldiers afterward. His actions during the attack earned him the Distinguished Service Cross. His priestly service had taken the form of remaining close to men in immediate need.

As the military situation deteriorated, Father Lafleur had an opportunity to leave. He asked whether the men entrusted to him would also be going. Learning that only some could depart, he chose to remain. The words associated with that decision were simple. “My place is with the men.” He subsequently became a Japanese prisoner of war. Captivity brought hunger, illness, and deprivation, but he continued serving his fellow prisoners and sought ways to provide for their needs.

At Davao Penal Colony, Father Lafleur and other prisoners constructed a small wooden chapel that they called Saint Peter in Chains. There he celebrated Christmas Eve Mass in 1942. He offered the sacraments, listened to the prisoners, and encouraged them to persevere. Later, while recovering from malaria, he volunteered to accompany men being transferred to a forced labor camp at Lasang. His commitment to remain among those needing a priest continued through the hardships of imprisonment.

In September 1944, hundreds of American prisoners were crowded aboard the Japanese transport ship Shinyo Maru. Conditions below deck were oppressive, with heat, poor ventilation, and little space. On September 7, the American submarine USS Paddle torpedoed the vessel off Mindanao. The Americans did not realize that prisoners of war were aboard. As the ship sank, Japanese guards fired at prisoners struggling to escape from the holds and at men already in the water.

Survivors remembered Father Lafleur helping fellow prisoners reach the deck under gunfire. He was last seen assisting others out of the sinking ship. He did not survive. At thirty two, the priest who had chosen to stay with his men died while helping them escape. In October 2017, his family received a second Distinguished Service Cross and another Purple Heart awarded posthumously in recognition of his sacrifice. The testimony of survivors preserved the memory of his final service.

On September 5, 2020, Bishop J. Douglas Deshotel formally opened Father Lafleur’s cause for beatification and canonization in the Diocese of Lafayette. He is known as Servant of God Joseph Verbis Lafleur, and the examination of his life continues. His story offers a witness to priestly charity expressed through steadfast companionship. From parish ministry to a prison camp and a sinking ship, he remained close to those entrusted to him, giving his strength and ultimately his life in their service.

For a devotional image of Servant of God Joseph Lafleur, click here:Maryvale Catholic Press

Servant of God Rhoda Wise, A Life Entrusted to the Sacred Heart

Servant of God Rhoda Wise

Rhoda Greer was born on February 22, 1888, in Cadiz, Ohio, the sixth of eight children. Raised in a Protestant family, she eventually made her home in Canton. Her life would include marriage, motherhood, bereavement, poverty, and prolonged illness. Years later, people would travel to her modest house seeking prayer and encouragement. The woman they came to see had learned about suffering through the difficult circumstances of her own family life and failing health.

Her first husband died after only six months of marriage. In 1917, she married George Wise. They adopted a baby girl who died before her first birthday, then welcomed another adopted daughter, Anna Mae, in 1922. George’s alcoholism brought additional hardship into their marriage. Rhoda’s responsibilities as a wife and mother continued amid financial insecurity and grief. These family struggles formed an important part of the life that later became associated with extraordinary spiritual experiences.

During the 1930s, Rhoda underwent surgery to remove a large abdominal tumor. Later operations left her with a wound that would not heal. A serious ankle injury also made walking painful and required repeated casts. During a lengthy stay at Mercy Hospital in Canton, she became interested in the Rosary and asked one of the religious sisters to teach her to pray it. She also learned about Saint Thérèse of Lisieux. After receiving instruction, Rhoda entered the Catholic Church on January 1, 1939.

Bishop James McFadden confirmed her in her hospital bed that March. On May 8, she returned home after doctors considered her condition incurable. In her written account, Rhoda described an appearance of Jesus beside her bed on May 28. She reported another encounter with Jesus and Saint Thérèse on June 28, followed by the complete closing of her abdominal wound. In August, she recorded a further experience involving Saint Thérèse, after which she said she could walk without crutches.

These reported experiences became central to Rhoda’s spiritual life and attracted visitors to her home. Beginning in 1942, accounts describe bleeding wounds on her forehead, followed later by wounds on her hands and feet. Those who witnessed them understood them as the stigmata, wounds resembling those of Christ’s Passion. Her writings and the testimony surrounding these events became part of the material gathered for her cause. Their supernatural character remains a matter for the Church’s discernment.

Rhoda’s devotion centered on the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the Rosary, and Saint Thérèse. She sought to offer her suffering for the salvation of souls, especially for priests and members of religious communities. People gathered at her house, where she accompanied others facing their own difficulties. The Diocese of Youngstown remembers her as a woman whose suffering was joined to enduring hope. Her desire to bring people closer to Christ gave purpose to the years that followed her conversion.

Among those who visited was a young woman from Canton named Rita Rizzo, later known as Mother Angelica. Rita suffered from a debilitating stomach condition and came seeking help. Rhoda encouraged her to pray a novena. Accounts of Rita’s life describe a sudden recovery after she followed that advice, an experience that helped direct her toward religious life. She eventually entered the Poor Clares of Perpetual Adoration and founded EWTN. Rhoda’s influence thus became part of the story behind a worldwide Catholic apostolate.

Rhoda died on July 7, 1948, at sixty. Her daughter Anna Mae continued welcoming visitors to the family home, preserving it as a place of prayer. Interest in Rhoda’s life endured long after her death. Her cause for beatification formally opened in the Diocese of Youngstown on October 7, 2016. The diocesan investigation concluded in July 2018, and its documents were sent to Rome for further examination.

In July 2026, her postulator announced that the Positio, the detailed presentation of her life, virtues, and reputation for holiness, had been submitted to the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints. Rhoda remains a Servant of God as that examination continues. Her story offers a witness to prayer and perseverance within the burdens of family life and illness. In the modest home where she lived and suffered, visitors continue seeking the consolation and hope that she found in Christ.

For a devotional image of Servant of God Rhoda Wise, click here: Maryvale Catholic Press

Blessed Maria Restituta Kafka, The Nurse Who Remained Faithful to Christ

Blessed Maria Restituta Kafka

Before she became Sister Maria Restituta, she was Helene Kafka, born on May 1, 1894, in Husovice, near Brno, in what is now the Czech Republic. Her family moved to Vienna during her childhood, and she grew up in the working district of Brigittenau. Life in a poor immigrant household introduced her to hardship early. After completing her schooling, she worked as a maid and in a tobacco shop before beginning the nursing work that would become her lifelong vocation.

In 1913, Helene began working as an assistant nurse at Vienna’s Lainz Hospital. There she encountered the Franciscan Sisters of Christian Charity, whose service to the sick offered a way to unite her desire for religious life with nursing. She entered their congregation in 1914 and received the name Maria Restituta, recalling an early Christian martyr. In 1919, her work brought her to the hospital in Mödling, south of Vienna, where she would serve for more than twenty years.

Sister Restituta became known as a skilled operating room nurse who also assisted with anesthesia. She was energetic, outspoken, and determined, with a warmth and humor that patients remembered. Her forceful personality earned her the nickname Sister Resoluta. The demands of hospital life gave her daily opportunities to serve Christ through careful attention to the sick. Her vocation took shape through years of practical work, professional responsibility, and concern for people suffering in body and spirit.

After Nazi Germany annexed Austria in 1938, the hospital became another setting for conflict over faith and conscience. Sister Restituta openly opposed National Socialism. She had crucifixes placed in hospital rooms and refused to remove them when ordered to do so. Her resistance brought her into conflict with supporters of the regime. The woman accustomed to defending her patients now faced pressure to surrender a visible expression of the faith that sustained her nursing.

Her opposition also included helping reproduce a song critical of the regime and supportive of Austrian independence. A Nazi physician at the hospital reported her to the Gestapo. On February 18, 1942, Ash Wednesday, she was arrested. During harsh interrogations, she refused to identify the soldier who had given her the song or the colleague who had helped copy it. On October 29, the Nazi People’s Court sentenced her to death on charges of aiding the enemy and preparing high treason.

In prison, Sister Restituta continued caring for others. Fellow prisoners remembered that she helped people regardless of their nationality, religion, or political convictions. A communist prisoner later spoke publicly about her generosity and the affection she inspired. Her confidence in God and her Austrian humor encouraged those around her. Confined among people facing fear and uncertainty, the nurse who had spent years attending to patients continued offering companionship and help wherever she could.

After receiving her death sentence, she wrote to her religious community on November 1, 1942. She told them that she had forgiven everyone who had contributed to her condemnation and asked them to forgive as well. Her opposition to injustice remained firm, while her letter expressed mercy toward those responsible for her suffering. Through thirteen months of imprisonment, including five months awaiting execution, she continued preparing to entrust her life to God.

On March 30, 1943, Sister Restituta was executed by guillotine in Vienna. She was forty eight. Before her death, she renewed her religious vows and asked the prison chaplain to make the sign of the cross on her forehead. At her beatification, John Paul II recalled the words handed down from her final witness. “I have lived for Christ, I want to die for Christ.” Her body was buried anonymously in Vienna’s Central Cemetery rather than returned to her congregation.

Pope John Paul II beatified her on June 21, 1998, in Vienna’s Heldenplatz. In the Archdiocese of Vienna, she is commemorated on October 29, the anniversary of her death sentence. Her life offers a witness to the unity of charity, courage, and fidelity to Christ. The hands that had served the sick belonged to a woman who defended her conscience under persecution and, when condemned, extended forgiveness to her persecutors.

For a devotional image of Blessed Maria Restituta, click here: Maryvale Catholic Press

Blessed Rosario Livatino, A Judge Under the Protection of God

Blessed Rosario Livatino

Rosario Angelo Livatino was born on October 3, 1952, in Canicattì, Sicily. Raised in a Catholic family, he became involved in Catholic Action and the life of his parish. He studied law at the University of Palermo, graduating with top marks in 1975. His professional ambitions developed alongside his faith. The young Sicilian who prepared to enter public service would eventually become known for an integrity that brought him into direct conflict with organized crime.

In 1978, Rosario entered the Italian magistracy and began his training in Caltanissetta. From 1979 to 1989, he served as a deputy prosecutor in Agrigento, investigating Mafia activity, ordinary crime, and corruption. In 1989, he became a judge in the criminal section of the same court. His responsibilities included measures directed against property acquired through criminal activity. Through this demanding work, he confronted the power of men who depended on intimidation, illegal wealth, and the cooperation of compromised officials.

Before entering the courthouse, Rosario regularly stopped at the nearby Church of Saint Joseph to pray before the Blessed Sacrament. In his personal notebooks, he often wrote the initials S.T.D., standing for Sub tutela Dei, meaning “Under the protection of God.” The expression also appeared in his university thesis. It reflected his desire to entrust his responsibilities, decisions, and concerns to God. Prayer accompanied the judicial work through which he sought to serve his community.

Rosario understood that administering justice required humility and respect for the person being judged. He insisted on professional competence while safeguarding the rights of the accused. In his reflections on faith and law, he described judicial decision making as an opportunity for the believer to serve God through love for the person before the court. He also defended human life, arguing that its protection rested on natural law as well as religious conviction. His faith informed a serious examination of his professional duties.

His integrity made him dangerous to the Mafia. The Church’s investigation later found that those opposing him regarded his practicing Catholic faith as a reason he could not be corrupted. A local Mafia leader contemptuously called him a religious bigot because of his church attendance. Rosario knew that his work carried risks, yet continued fulfilling his responsibilities. The testimony gathered for his cause described a man who remained respectful toward others, including those under investigation or held in custody.

On the morning of September 21, 1990, Rosario drove alone from Canicattì toward Agrigento, where he was expected at the courthouse. Mafia gunmen ambushed and murdered him along the road. He was thirty seven, less than two weeks from his thirty eighth birthday. The work through which he had defended justice had cost him his life. His death left his family grieving and Sicily mourning another public servant killed for resisting the demands of organized crime.

The Church subsequently examined the relationship between his murder and his faith. In December 2020, Pope Francis authorized the decree recognizing his martyrdom. The investigation concluded that the hatred directed against him involved the Christian faith that shaped his conduct and resistance to corruption. His service to justice had become an expression of fidelity to Christ. The Church recognized in that service a witness carried through danger to the giving of his life.

Rosario was beatified on May 9, 2021, in Agrigento Cathedral, with Cardinal Marcello Semeraro presiding on behalf of Pope Francis. His feast day was established as October 29, the anniversary of his Confirmation. At the ceremony, the bloodstained shirt he had worn when he was killed was presented as a relic. The judge’s ordinary working clothes bore witness to the cost of the faith and integrity he had brought into his daily responsibilities.

By a decree dated October 7, 2026, Blessed Rosario Livatino was declared patron of Italian magistrates. His example continues to speak to those entrusted with administering justice. Through study, prayer, difficult decisions, and resistance to corruption, he sought to serve both God and his fellow citizens. His life shows how a lay vocation can become a path to holiness through faithful attention to the duties of an ordinary profession, even when that fidelity demands extraordinary courage.

For a devotional image of Blessed Rosario, click here:Maryvale Catholic Press

Blessed Chiara “Luce” Badano, A Young Life Filled with Christ’s Light

Blessed Chiara "Luce" Badano

Chiara Badano was born on October 29, 1971, and grew up in Sassello, a small town in northern Italy. Her parents, Ruggero and Maria Teresa, had waited eleven years for a child. They welcomed their daughter with gratitude and raised her in a loving Catholic home. Chiara grew into a lively, determined girl who enjoyed friendship, sports, and the beauty of the countryside. Faith accompanied the ordinary pleasures and responsibilities of her childhood.

At nine, Chiara became involved in the Focolare Movement, founded by Chiara Lubich. Its emphasis on God’s love, Christian unity, and living the Gospel deeply influenced her. She joined its young members and began corresponding with Lubich. A copy of the Gospels, received at her First Communion, became especially important to her. She wanted to put its teachings into practice through the way she treated her family, classmates, and anyone who needed help.

Her generosity took practical forms. Her mother remembered that, at four, Chiara initially resisted giving away her toys, then chose some of her new ones for poor children. As she grew older, she visited an elderly woman in a retirement home, helping with simple personal tasks and keeping her company. Friends found her ready to listen to their difficulties. She also experienced disappointments, including having to repeat a school year, and worked to begin again when she struggled.

In 1988, a sharp pain in her shoulder interrupted a tennis game. The pain persisted, and examinations eventually revealed osteosarcoma, a serious bone cancer that had spread. At seventeen, Chiara entered a life of hospital visits, surgery, and demanding treatment. In February 1989, she underwent an operation in Turin. Her response to suffering became closely associated with a brief prayer. “If you want it, Jesus, I want it too.” She also asked Mary for the strength to persevere.

Accepting the diagnosis required a struggle. Her mother recalled that, after learning how serious her condition was, Chiara returned home and asked for silence. She lay on her bed for about twenty five minutes before telling her mother that they could speak again. Maria Teresa remembered that interval as a decisive moment in her daughter’s acceptance of what lay ahead. The cheerful girl who loved tennis and cycling now faced the possibility that her life would be very short.

As the illness progressed, Chiara lost the use of her legs. Her physical limitations increased, but she continued welcoming visitors and listening to their concerns. She offered her suffering for young people, the missions, and her diocese. Her spirituality centered on remaining close to Jesus crucified and abandoned. Even when she could no longer take part in the activities she loved, she understood that she could still love, pray, and give encouragement to those around her.

Her friends remained close throughout her illness. Chiara Lubich gave her the additional name Luce, meaning light, which became inseparable from her memory. As death approached, Chiara prepared the details of her funeral, choosing prayers and songs and asking to be dressed in white. She regarded her approaching encounter with Christ as a wedding feast. The preparations expressed the hope with which she faced death, sustained by the faith she had been learning to live since childhood.

Chiara died on October 7, 1990, just weeks before her nineteenth birthday. Shortly before her death, she encouraged her mother to be happy because she herself was happy. Hundreds of people, especially young people, attended her funeral. She had also consented to donating her corneas, which were transplanted into two recipients. Her concern for others continued through that final gift, following the generosity that had marked her childhood and adolescence.

On September 25, 2010, Chiara was beatified in Rome during the pontificate of Benedict XVI. Her feast day is October 29. Soon afterward, Benedict invited young people to learn about her, emphasizing both her faith and the support of her parents and friends. Her brief life offers a witness to redemptive suffering, lived through a personal effort to unite pain with Christ and continue loving others. The light associated with her name had become a source of encouragement far beyond Sassello.

For a devotional image of Luce, click here:Maryvale Catholic Press

Venerable Nelson Baker, A Father to Those in Need

 

Venerable Nelson Baker

Nelson Henry Baker was born in Buffalo, New York, on February 16, 1842. His father, Lewis, was Lutheran, and his mother, Caroline, was Catholic. The family lived behind the grocery store his father operated, where Nelson eventually worked and learned the practical demands of business. Baptized as a Lutheran, he entered the Catholic Church during childhood. Years later, the boy who had helped in his father’s store would use his business experience to care for people who had nowhere else to turn.

In 1863, during the American Civil War, Nelson served briefly in a New York militia regiment. After returning to Buffalo, he became a partner in a successful business selling feed and grain. He also joined the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul and volunteered at an orphanage, giving both his time and his money. As he considered the priesthood, he studied Latin while continuing to work. In September 1869, at twenty seven, he entered Our Lady of Angels Seminary in Lewiston, New York.

His preparation for the priesthood included a serious illness. A leg infection in 1871 interrupted his studies and required a lengthy recovery. In 1874, he traveled to Europe on a pilgrimage. At the church of Notre Dame des Victoires in Paris, his devotion to Mary under the title Our Lady of Victory deepened. That devotion would shape his future work. On March 19, 1876, the feast of Saint Joseph, Nelson was ordained a priest at Saint Joseph’s Cathedral in Buffalo.

Father Baker’s first assignment brought him to Limestone Hill, now part of Lackawanna, where an orphanage and a protectory for boys were already operating. Their debts were substantial. Following a brief assignment in Corning, he returned in 1882 to take charge of the institutions. He used his own savings to help meet their obligations and developed a wider source of support. Through the Association of Our Lady of Victory, he invited Catholics around the country to contribute twenty five cents annually. Those small gifts helped repay debts and expand the work.

Keeping the buildings warm was another pressing concern. Father Baker pursued the drilling of a natural gas well on the property, seeking an affordable supply of fuel for the institutions. In 1891, the well successfully reached gas. Named the Victoria Well in honor of Our Lady of Victory, it supplied fuel for heating and cooking. His care for the children included the ordinary necessities of daily life, and his experience in business helped him find ways to provide them.

His responsibilities continued to grow. In 1908, he opened Our Lady of Victory Infant Home, welcoming babies and mothers who needed assistance. A crib and blanket were placed near an unlocked entrance so that a mother unable to keep her child could leave the baby somewhere safe. Father Baker also made evening rounds among the children, blessing them and attending to their care. A maternity hospital followed in 1919. His institutions offered shelter, education, and opportunities to learn a trade as children grew older.

Father Baker also undertook the construction of a great church dedicated to Our Lady of Victory. Its cornerstone was laid in 1921, when he was seventy nine. The first Mass in the completed church was celebrated on Christmas Day in 1925. Dedicated in May 1926, it received the title of minor basilica that July. Contributions had paid for its construction by the time it was completed. The church gave enduring expression to the Marian devotion that had accompanied his years of service.

During the Great Depression, people came to Father Baker’s institutions seeking food, clothing, and somewhere to sleep. His charitable work continued even as he approached the end of his long life. Homes for unemployed women also became part of his response to the hardship around him. Known as the Padre of the Poor, he had become a familiar source of help for people facing hunger, homelessness, and uncertainty.

Father Nelson Baker died on July 29, 1936, at ninety four. His cause for canonization opened in 1987. On January 14, 2011, Pope Benedict XVI recognized his heroic virtues, giving him the title Venerable. The charitable institutions associated with Our Lady of Victory continue his work through education, health care, and support for children and families. His life joined prayer with practical responsibility, expressed through decades of feeding, sheltering, teaching, and caring for those entrusted to him.

For a devotional image of Venerable Baker, click here: Maryvale Catholic Press

Servant of God Francis J. Parater, A Life Given to the Sacred Heart

 

Servant of God Francis J. Parater

Francis Joseph Parater was born on October 10, 1897, in Richmond, Virginia. Known as Frank, he grew up in a devout Catholic family in the Church Hill neighborhood. He was baptized at Saint Patrick Church. His family’s modest home stood near the Visitation monastery of Monte Maria, where his father cared for the garden and where Frank’s own life of prayer began to take shape.

From the time of his First Communion until he left Richmond for college, Frank served daily Mass at the monastery. His devotion accompanied an active and accomplished youth. He became an Eagle Scout and graduated as valedictorian of Benedictine High School in 1917. Remembered as friendly, talented, and well rounded, he brought his faith into his studies, friendships, and scouting. The desire to become a priest grew within that ordinary life of responsibility and service.

After high school, Frank entered Belmont Abbey Seminary College in North Carolina. There, he followed a personal rule of life that included daily Holy Communion, weekly confession, and devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and Saint Thérèse of Lisieux. He eventually decided to prepare for the diocesan priesthood, hoping to serve the Church in his native Virginia. His formation joined academic preparation with a deliberate effort to deepen his love for God.

In the autumn of 1919, Bishop Denis O’Connell sent him to the Pontifical North American College in Rome for theological studies. Frank’s humor and good cheer endeared him to his fellow seminarians. He continued the spiritual life he had cultivated at home and at Belmont. Far from Virginia, he remained devoted to the people he hoped one day to serve as a priest.

That December, Frank wrote an Act of Oblation to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. He sealed it with instructions that it should be read only if he died in Rome. In this spiritual testament, he consecrated his life to the Sacred Heart and offered himself for the conversion of those outside the Catholic Church in Virginia. His offering encompassed the work of living as well as the possibility of death. He wanted every action to contribute to the Church’s mission.

Frank also explained that he loved his life at the college, his companions, and Rome. His offering expressed gratitude and confidence in God. He hoped that, if he died, he could continue helping his loved ones and his diocese through prayer. He wrote, “I shall be of more service to my diocese in heaven than I could ever be on earth.” Those words revealed how deeply his hope for heaven remained connected to his love for Virginia.

In late January 1920, Frank became seriously ill with rheumatic fever. He was admitted to the hospital of the Blue Nuns, where his illness brought pain and delirium. As his condition worsened, he received the Last Rites. Wishing to kneel for Holy Communion, he tried to leave his bed, but was prevented from doing so. He instead knelt on the bed to receive Viaticum. He died on February 7, aged twenty two, before he could be ordained.

After his death, his spiritual testament was discovered among his belongings. As it became known, Pope Benedict XV and later Pope Pius XI requested copies. Frank was buried in the North American College mausoleum at Rome’s Campo Verano cemetery. His short life left a lasting impression on those who had known him and on others who encountered his offering to God.

His cause for canonization began in 2001, and the diocesan inquiry concluded in 2005. He remains a Servant of God. The priesthood for which he prepared was never fulfilled on earth, but his written offering preserves the purpose that guided him. As a student, scout, and seminarian, Frank sought to give himself completely to Christ and to the salvation of others.

For a devotional image of Servant of God Francis, click here: Maryvale Catholic Press