BL. JAN BEYZYM, PRIEST

BL. JAN BEYZYM, PRIEST - 2 OCTOBER

BLESSED JAN BEYZYM, PRIEST AND MISSIONARY

(Also commemorated on October 12)

Jan Beyzym was a true pioneer in caring for lepers at a time when no cure for leprosy was available and those afflicted with the disease were banished from society.

Born on May 15, 1850, in Beyzymy Wielkie in Wolyn as the oldest child in the family, Jan's parents were Counts Jan and Olga Beyzym. Jan, till he was thirteen, and his siblings were educated at home at the mansion house of Onatskovtsy. When his father was sentenced to death (in absentia) for taking part in the January 1863 Uprising and the family mansion was devastated and burnt by Cossacks, the Beyzyms had to flee. They relocated to Kiev where young Jan was helping his mother to support the family by giving private lessons. A year later he could resume his education at lower high school which he completed in 1871. On December 10, 1872, Jan joined the Jesuits.

During his novitiate a cholera epidemic broke out, and Jan and a few other novices were permitted to accompany the priests and brothers as they visited people in nearby villages suffering from the illness. He completed his philosophy and theology studies in Cracow and was ordained priest by Bishop Albin Dunajewski on July 26, 1881.

For 17 years, Fr Beyzym worked as an educator among young people in the Jesuit Colleges at Tarnopol and Chyrow, where he taught French and Russian and also was in charge of the school infirmary.

Already as early as 1879 he had asked for a mission placement among lepers - i.e. people suffering from Hansen's Disease - and during his years of teaching, the desire to work with them only increased. After an exchange of letters with Father General Luis Martin, Fr Beyzym finally received the assignment he had long desired. "I know very well", Fr Beyzym had written to the Fr General Louis Martin in Rome in 1897, "what leprosy is and what I must expect, but all this does not frighten me..."

In 1898 he was posted to Madagascar, rather than India, because he was able to speak French and could assist the French Jesuits who worked with lepers.

On arriving in the Red Island, Madagascar - being 48 years old at the time - he was placed at the leprosarium of Ambahivoraka near Antananarivo, where 150 sick people dwelled in almost total abandonment in the desert. They lived in crumbling shacks which were divided into small windowless rooms without flooring or furniture. No medication was available to them and they vegetated, day by day, without any help. They often died of hunger rather than of sickness.

Fr Beyzym put his infirmary experience to work

After his first two weeks at his new appointment, Fr Beyzym wrote to Rodolphe de Scorraille, Head of the Province of Champagne and its missions, a letter to present the indescribable conditions he was confronted with, admitting that he asked the Good Lord to help him bring relief to this misery and that he wept in private at the sufferings of these unhappy people.

However, he did not shrink from the reality. He devoted all his strength, his talents as an organizer and, above all, his heart to the sick. The first radical step that he took was to live among the lepers, something that no one else did. This act bore witness to the fact that even these most abandoned people were human beings and that they must be saved. He also put his infirmary experience to work and began to provide medical attention to their sores. Moreover, he laboured to improve their houses, prepare food and secure adequate water. The government ration of rice was inadequate, so he went into the city and begged food for them.

Fr Beyzym laboured to improve the locals' houses

As much as he could do by himself, he soon realised that they needed a real hospital and doctors and nurses. The project was far too ambitious for the resources of the mission, but Fr Beyzym did not give up. He placed the project under the protection of Our Lady of Czestochowa and began soliciting funds from Catholic missionary organisations and magazines in Poland. His letters were eloquent and effective, and even people who had very little to spare donated what was needed to build a hospital. For the new project, Fr Beyzym selected a location at Marana, near Fianarantsoa, due to its good water supply and because the land was good for agriculture. He supervised the construction of the building and even sculpted decorations for the chapel's interior. The hospital opened August 16, 1916, staffed by Sisters of Saint Joseph of Cluny.

Fr Beyzym became a noted figure for his activism and collaboration with the lepers and became known for his intense devotion to both the Eucharist and the Mother of God while being known also as a lover of all creation.

Fr Beyzym died at Marana on October 2, 1912. His health had declined and he suffered both arteriosclerosis and sores which confined him to bed. His remains were exhumed and relocated to Poland on December 8, 1993 to be interred at a Jesuit church.

The hospital stands today as a lasting monument to Fr Beyzym's dedication. He had given his all to change public attitudes to sufferers of contagious illnesses, encouraged poor people to be generous with those who were completely destitute, and built hospitals to take care of the sick and, above all, to give them back a sense of dignity and hope.

Both in his personal life and in his apostolic labours, he always kept before him the goal that Saint Ignatius prescribed for the members of the Society: the greater glory of God, and the good of souls. He once wrote: "One’s country is where the greater service of God and help of the souls is found. It does not matter where you live: at the equator or at the North Pole. What really matters is to die in the service of the Lord Jesus as a member of our holy Society..."

PRAYER:

May the intercession of Blessed Jan commend us to you, so that through his merits we may obtain that which we cannot accomplish by our own. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Sources: - https://beyzym.pl/home-2/ - https://www.vatican.va/news_services/liturgy/saints/ns_lit_doc_20020818_beyzym_en.html - https://www.jesuits.global/saint-blessed/blessed-john-beyzym/ (Tom Rochford,SJ) - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_Beyzym

BL. LUKE KIRBY, PRIEST AND MARTYR - 30 MAY

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN MAY Saints celebrated on the 30th of May WELCOME! BLESSED LUKE KIRBY, PRIEST AND MARTYR 16th century houses, painted by Auguste Mayer He was born in the bishopric of Durham, according to Raissius ; others say at Richmond, in Yorkshire. He was master of arts in one of our universities; but going abroad to Douay, in Flanders, was received into the English college there, 1576, and made priest in 1577; and the year following sent upon the mission. Where he had not been long before he again went abroad, and travelled to Rome, partly for devotion, and partly for further improvement in learning. Here he remained in the English college till 1580, when he returned into England, and was not long after apprehended: for I find by a printed diary of things transacted in the Tower of London from 1580 till 1585, that on the 5th of December, 1580, Luke Kirby, Thomas Cottam , and other priests, were brought to the Tower from other prisons; and that these two, on the 10th...

SAINT FEAST DAY FOR EVERY DAY OF THE YEAR

Search This Blog