Four young French friars recognized as martyrs of the Catholic apostolate

The Friary of Saint Francis in Paris was bustling with activity throughout the weekend celebrating with the Church of France the beatification of Franciscan friars Gérard Cendrier, Roger Le Ber, Louis Paraire, and Xavier Boucher. Along with 46 other faithful people, mostly lay (members of the Christian Workers Youth and the Scouts), these four men were recognized as martyrs of Catholic apostolate, meaning they were killed by the Nazis for secretly providing spiritual support to young French people deported to forced labor camps. The General Minister, Br. Massimo Fusarelli, accompanied by the General Postulator, Br. Gianni Califano, and Br. Jürgen Neitzert (St. Elizabeth Province, Germany), arrived from Rome to share to take part in the celebration along with the friars of the Blessed John Duns Scotus Province of France-Belgium.

The celebrations began on the evening of Friday, December 12th, with a review of historical situation and a moment of remembrance in prayer. One hundred year old Br. Luc Mathieu, considered “a living memory of the Province” who knew these friars, spoke along with historian Caroline Langlois, detailing the lives of the martyrs to an attentive audience.

A Franciscan Life in the Heart of Hell

As the story goes, it was in 1943, that twelve young Franciscan in early stages of religious life arrived at the Deutsche Reichsbahn camp in Cologne. From there, in September of that year, they were shipped off to the Buchenwald concentration camp. The two speakers emphasized their determination to live together and embrace their fraternal life of prayer amidst the incessant bombings. They were discovered caring for the sick, leading prayer and song at social gatherings, and organizing drives to clothe and feed Ukrainian and Russian prisoners. They would also sabotage the enemy’s equipment, help prisoners to escape, and stand in for comrades on the verge of exhaustion, doing their work for them and living out their call to be Catholics in Action. The chaplaincy was forbidden and clandestine at the time and because of their good works they were beaten, sentenced to life imprisonment, where they battled epidemics of typhus and dysentery. The assembly was moved upon hearing these testimonies, permeated with the love for Franciscan spirituality, to which they had dedicated their lives. “Saint Francis, in my place, would not have acted differently,” Br. Gérard Cendrier would often say.

Br. Massimo was deeply struck by the stories and said: “I think their testimony is very relevant today, especially for the younger brothers of the Order. They remained united with each other and with the people they served in a very concrete way, sharing their struggles and their daily prayer lives. I believe their testimony gives us much hope and shines a light on the darkness present today. Martyrdom isn't about being strong; that's pagan heroism. Christian martyrdom is about being weak – and they were – but, when called by God, they weak find their strength in Him to love to the very end.” Br. Massimo also shared that he had sent a letter to his confreres in the war zones of Ukraine, Syria, Haiti, Guinea-Bissau, and eastern Congo that very morning.

Learning from the beatification

On Saturday, December 13th, the celebration took on a very special dimension with the grand solemn beatification Mass at Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris. In this iconic location, the liturgy brought together more than forty bishops from France and Germany.

Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich, Archbishop of Luxembourg, urged in his homily: “Whatever our vocation, our work, our responsibilities, as disciples of Christ, we are committed to serving our brothers and sisters, wherever God, in His Providence, has placed us. Faith is never a private matter. It must find expression in concrete service to our brothers and sisters. These beatifications invite us to look at the present and prepare for the future. We are living, we have lived, in times of reconciliation between peoples. Reconciliation is a work that never ends and that each generation must continue. [...] All of you young people from France and throughout Europe, perhaps you do not go to church, perhaps you find no meaning in your lives. If that is the case, I invite you to look to Christ, the Prince of Peace, the Prince of love and not of hatred, learn from Him, like your brothers and sisters, the martyrs beatified today, learn from Him and from them to forget self and to commit yourselves to the good of your brothers and sisters!”

A highlight of the celebration came with the reading aloud of fifty names of martyrs and the discovery of Nicolas de Palmaert's work depicting the fifty martyrs – now blessed – symbolically ascending to heaven around the cross of Christ. The weekend concluded with a Thanksgiving Mass presided over by Br. Massimo at the Rue Marie Rose friary. It was Gaudete Sunday and the Minister invited the faithful to meditate on the figure of John the Baptist in his vulnerability and doubts, the same doubts that were surely experienced by the four martyrs whose portraits were displayed in the chapel. “The true prophet,” Br. Massimo said, “is not a fortune-teller, does not know the future, but is one who, in times of persecution and despair, helps us look to the future and find hope and joy in the present. The true prophet becomes a ‘sacrament’ of God's presence here and now! How visible and tangible this is in the lives of our young martyred brothers! Their faith was severely tested. And perhaps for them too, the darkness and cold of the night made it difficult to hope and find joy... Nevertheless, they decided to remain united, even in the face of the possibility of death, which for the Christian is an invitation to new life. No matter how bitter reality may seem, or how great our loss may be, it is still true that the Lord is coming! This is the great message of Advent, this is the great message given to us by any of our martyred brothers or sisters.”

Emilie Rey, Communications Office, Blessed John Duns Scotus Province