Preparing for the Beatification

Identification of the mortal remains of Father Dehon

Since Father Dehon's beatification is close, some relics from his body had to be brought to Rome. It was necessary to open the tomb of the Venerable Servant of God and to identify his mortal remains in Saint Quentin. What follows is a verbatim report of the official act of identification.

In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Today, on the 6th of December 2004, during the 26th year of the Pontificate of John Paul II, in presence of the Bishop of Soissons-Laon-Saint Quentin, Bishop Marcel Herriot, took place the identification of the mortal remains of the Venerable Léon Dehon, born in La Capelle on the 14th of March 1843, deceased in Brussels on the 12th of August 1925 in scent of holiness and buried in Saint Quentin in the northern cemetery, then entombed in Saint Martin's church on the 9th of October 1963.

Among others present at the identification were: Father Claudio Weber, SCJ, Assistent General of the Congregation of the Priests of the Sacred Heart of Jesus; Father Evaristo Martínez de Alegría, SCJ, general Postulator; Father Paul Birsens, SCJ, Superior provincial of the Euro-Frank province; Monsignor Trauselard, ecclesiastical notary; Sylvain Servais, ecclesiastical solicitor; and Gérard Barbier, officiating notary.

La Capelle

 

On the 6th of December 2004, some of the mortal remains of the Venerable Servant of God, Father Dehon, which had been taken some hours before from his tomb in Saint Quentin, arrived at his birthplace in the village of La Capelle. Father Evaristo Martínez de Alegría SCJ, general Postulator, handed them over to the local Superior Father Pedro García, SCJ, who placed them on the altar of the house chapel.

Those present at the event concelebrated the Eucharist, a very moving moment. Listening to the Word of God, they commemorated the vocation of Father Leo Dehon as well as the grace of the SCJ vocation. The relics of the Founder and the portrait of Blessed Juan Maria de la Cruz, protomartyr of the Congregation, which is displayed and venerated in the same chapel, invited a reflection on the different ways of sanctification achieved within one Religious community.

On the 8th of December, the relics of Venerable Leo Dehon arrived in Rome and the SCJ Community of Rome received them into the family as they gathered in the chapel for the evening prayer of the Immaculate Conception.