BL. JACQUES GHAZIR HADDAD, PRIEST AND FOUNDER - 26 JUNE

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN JUNE

Saints celebrated on the 26th of June

WELCOME!

BLESSED JACQUES GHAZIR HADDAD, PRIEST AND FOUNDER 

Khalil al-Haddad was born on February 1, 1875 in Lebanon; he was baptized on February 21, 1875 in the Maronite church located in his town and received the sacrament of Confirmation on February 9, 1881.

He attended school in Ghazir from 1885 until 1891 and then at the College de La Sagesse in Beirut where he studied the Arabic language in addition to French and Syriac. In 1892 he left Lebanon and served as a teacher of Arabic at the Christian Brothers' College of Saint Mark's in Alexandria in Egypt from 1892 to 1893 where he felt a strong call to the religious life. He entered the Order of Friars Minor Capuchin in Khashbau at Saint Anthony's on August 25, 1893 and received his religious name in honor of Saint James of the Marches; he professed his perpetual vows in 1898. Upon starting his novitiate he made a covenant with God: "I came alive and I will only come out dead". He received the habit on March 26, 1894.

He was ordained to the priesthood on November 1, 1901 in Beirut from Monsignor Carlos Duval in the chapel of the apostolic vicariate. He became noted amongst the public for the establishment of churches and hospitals in addition to the foundation of various schools and orphanages. From 1903 until a decade later in 1914 he served as an itinerant preacher and was dubbed "the Apostle of Lebanon". In 1905 he was appointed as the director of all schools that the Capuchins oversaw.

He founded soup kitchens and constructed a chapel dedicated to Our Lady of the Sea while erecting a great cross in a location close to the chapel. He also introduced the Third Order of Saint Francis into Lebanon. In 1919 he founded Saint Francis' School at Jall-Eddib. In 1930 he founded the Franciscan Sisters of the Cross as a means of catering to the needs of the old and the disabled. Sister Marie Zougheib was his first collaborator and aided him in setting up his new congregation; he set out in the statues of his order the insistence above all else that the works of mercy never be neglected in the pursuit of the order's work. He had been titled as the "Vincent de Paul of Lebanon". In 1933 he opened the house of the Sacred Heart in Deir el-Qamar as a girls orphanage and the a hospital for handicapped girls at Dier el-Qamar in 1933. The priest later in 1948 opened the Hospital of Our Lady for the aged and for those suffering from chronic illnesses. He founded the monthly magazine "The Friend of the Family". He often said: "Sow Hosts; reap saints" in response to the Blessed Sacrament.

Among his other foundations were Saint Joseph's Hospital in Dora, the School of the Sisters of the Cross at Brummana, and the Hospice of Christ the King at Zouk-Mosbeh in 1950.

He said at dawn on June 26, 1954: "Today is my last day!" and died at 3pm on June 26, 1954 in Beirut of leukemia while holding a crucifix. His last words were: "The Cross of God: the love of my heart". He suffered from vision impairment in his last decade and was almost blind before his death. Church bells - as well as the media - announced his death nationwide. The late priest left behind 10,000 pages worth of spiritual writings.

Source:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_Ghazir_Haddad

PRAYER:

Grant, we beseech you, almighty God, that the venerable feast of Blessed Jacques may increase our devotion and promote our salvation. 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.