Saint Who?
Saints Who Were Teachers
Blessed James Miller
Religious and martyr († 1982)Feast: February 13
He was just an ordinary boy, growing up on a farm in Wisconsin after World War II. But teachers at his Catholic high school inspired him to want to become a teacher and religious brother in the Brothers of the Christian Schools.
At the age of fifteen, James went to Missouri to enter a high school for students considering a religious vocation to that order. After completing his studies, he became a brother and was sent to a school in Minnesota. A year later, he was sent to Nicaragua, where he spent nineteen years teaching, directing schools, and building new ones. However, during the Sandinista revolution, all members of the Brothers were ordered to leave for their safety, and James returned to America.
But his heart belonged to the poor, and his order agreed to send him back on mission, this time to Guatemala. There he taught both teens and adults. One year later, he was making repairs outside his school when three hooded men shot and killed him. It is still unclear whether he was killed by revolutionaries from Guatemala or from Nicaragua; the Brothers had publicly opposed the mistreatment of the poor in both countries. As one of his religious brothers put it, “That for which he lived and died is the Gospel message of freedom, peace, justice, and truth.”
Father of the poor, move our hearts to care for the needy and protect those in danger.
