From: rich <
richarra@gmail.com>
August 4th =E2=80=93 Bl. Father Frederick Janssoone
Franciscan Missionary to Four Continents and miracle worker
Born in 1838 in Ghyvelde, France, of a Flemish family, Father
Frederick Janssoone was the thirteenth and last child. From early
youth he aspired to consecrate his life to God, but his mother's
widowhood and subsequent long illness delayed his plans. He took
employment in nearby Hazebrouck, selling fabrics. When he was 25 years
old, his pious mother died, and in the same year her three youngest
sons all decided, independently of one another, to enter religion.
Frederick decided upon the Seraphic Order, whose ideals corresponded
exactly with his own. Strict poverty, sustaining an apostolate founded
on penance and prayer, would always characterize his religious life.
He entered the Franciscan novitiate of Amiens in 1864, and was
ordained a priest in 1870. He served as military chaplain during the
brief Franco-Prussian war, facing undaunted the contagion of a triple
epidemic.
In October 1871, with another priest and four Franciscan Brothers,
Father Frederick was named to found a convent of the Order in
Bordeaux. He collaborated with the founder of a magazine, writing
articles for the Revue Franciscaine. He became local Guardian in
Bordeaux in 1873, when he was 35 years old. In 1874 he was relieved of
the responsibility of Superior to preach retreats; he also began to
found fraternities of the Third Order. In 1876, having a strong desire
to labor for his Lord in the Holy Land, and when his request was
granted, he left for Palestine in 1877 with a brother Franciscan.
During his first year in the Orient, he preached retreats for
religious communities in both Syria and Egypt, returning to Jerusalem
in 1878, when he was elected to serve as Custodial Vicar. There he
could remain close to the very place where our Saviour's Redemption
was effected--the Basilica which conserves within it the site of
Calvary and the Holy Sepulcher itself. He accompanied pilgrimages to
preside over the prayer and act as guide, and he preached on many
formal occasions. He reinstated the Way of the Cross along the path
Our Lord took to Calvary. He took charge of building activities for
the restoration of churches and preparation of much-needed lodgings
for pilgrims. Father Frederick's humility and Franciscan charity
brought about harmony among the various factions of the Holy City.
Father Frederick came to Quebec City, Canada in 1881 to beg for
financial aid to the Custody, which had begun renovation of the
antique Basilica of Bethlehem. He brought with him relics of the Holy
Land, and these, when venerated or applied to afflicted members of
infirm persons, miracles occurred. The people called the ardent priest
a miracle-worker, whereas he ascribed the miracles to God's love, t=
he
efficacy of Our Saviour's redemptive death on Calvary, and the fait=
h
of the people. When he was recalled to the Holy Land after only eight
months in the Province, all the Canadians who knew him desired his
return.
In the summer of that year he came to Trios Rivers, Quebec, as
Monsignor Louis Lafleche, its fervent bishop, had invited him there to establish the proposed Canadian Holy Land Commissariat. The bishop
welcomed him and gave him land for the proposed edifice.
It was Father Frederick who preached at the dedication of the Shrine
of Our Lady of the Rosary at Cap-de-la-Madeleine on June 22, 1888,
foretelling the future fame of the site. That evening, Our Lady's
statue, which had been moved to the main altar, opened its eyes, in
the presence of the parish Vicar, Father Duguay, Father Frederick, and
a parishioner who had come to pray. Father Frederick never forgot the
gaze of the Mother of God, engraved in his soul. It would inspire all
his preaching, when he was placed in charge of the numerous
pilgrimages which would come by boat and train, from the cities and
towns of Quebec and beyond, to the Cape.
During his 28 years in Canada Father Frederick founded a great many fraternities of the Third Order of Saint Francis. He was the
activating force behind several life-size Ways of the Cross erected in
the Province, one of which is still extant at the Sanctuary of
Reparation in Montreal.
The Franciscan crossed the river one winter day on the ice, by horse
and sleigh belonging by a young man who had come to fetch him for a
sick call. The young driver, who intended to drive him back home
across the ice, found by evening that it had melted. Father Frederick
told him not to worry, and to go on home. No one ever knew how he made
the return trip. Pictures often depict him on an ice floe, praying on
his knees; over his head the Mother of Heaven, listening to him. For
he said on his return to the rectory, when Father Duguay did not
understand why there was no driver or horse accompanying him, that
=E2=80=9Cthe Mother of God had provided=E2=80=9D for his transport.
Father Frederick, after many years of suffering from an illness, went
to his reward on August 4, 1916. Everywhere he labored, his memory
remains in veneration today. His ministry extended to five nations,
France, Egypt, Syria, the Holy Land and Canada. The mortal remains of
this son of Saint Francis have twice been found intact at
Trois-Rivieres, in 1948 and 1988. Favors continue to be recorded by
the intercession of this ever-popular Friar.
Sources: Le P=C3=A8re Fr=C3=A9d=C3=A9ric de Ghyvelde, series of booklets on=
the
different phases of his life, by Rev. Mathieu-M. Daunais, O.F.M.
(Montreal: 1920's); An Apostle of Two Worlds, by Romain Legare, O.F.M.
(Trois Rivi=C3=A8res, Quebec, 1958).
Saint Quote:
The first requirement of salvation is to keep the standard of the True Fait=
h.
--Pope St. Adrian II (867-872)
Bible Quote:
And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, afterwards he was
hungry. And the tempter coming said to him: If thou be the Son of God,
command that these stones be made bread. Who answered and said: It is
written, Not in bread alone doth man live, but in every word that
proceedeth from the mouth of God.=C2 (Matthew 4:2-4)
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Prayers in honor of St. Joseph for the agonized:
Eternal Father, by Thy love for St. Joseph, whom Thou didst
select from all men to represent Thee upon earth,
have mercy on us and on the dying.
Our Father...Hail Mary...Glory be...
Eternal Divine Son, by Thy love for St. Joseph, who was Thy
faithful guardian upon earth, have mercy on us and on the dying.
Our Father...Hail Mary...Glory be ...
Eternal Divine Spirit, by Thy love for St. Joseph, who so
carefully watched over Mary, Thy beloved spouse,
have mercy on us and on the dying.
Our Father...Hail Mary...Glory be...
--- NewsGate v1.0 gamma 2
* Origin: News Gate @ Net396 -Huntsville, AL - USA (1:396/4)