Saint Who?
Saints Who Faced Persecution
Blessed Pierre-Sulpice-Christophe Faverge
Religious and martyr († 1794) Feast: September 12
After his birth in France in 1745, he was given the names of three great saints: Peter the Apostle; Sulpice, Bishop of Bourges; and the early martyr Christopher. But he took the name of the popular Italian saint Roger, Bishop of Cannae, when he entered the Brothers of the Christian Schools at the age of twenty-two.
By the time the French Revolution began, Brother Roger had served for many years as a teacher. Periodic violence, often directed at Catholics, lasted for years and culminated in the Reign of Terror. For many months throughout 1794, Catholic churches and schools were closed and destroyed. Bishops, priests, and religious were arrested and sometimes slaughtered outright.
Brother Roger was arrested and ordered to renounce his religious vows. When he refused, he was sent to the hulks, unseaworthy vessels in the port of Rochefort which were used as prisons to house many priests and religious. As immortalized by Victor Hugo in Les Misérables, prisoners starved, were worked to death, and died of neglect in the deplorable conditions of the hulks. Yet Roger remained faithful to Christ and to his vows as a religious. Many years later, survivors of the hulks remembered Brother Roger’s steadfast faith and his words of encouragement to other prisoners before his death on September 12, 1794.
Holy Spirit, strengthen us so that we can comfort others when we too are suffering.
