FEBRUARY 28TH, EMBER SATURDAY IN LENT

Last Day of the Month in honor of the Holy Family of JMJ.

Fasting and partial abstinence.

Blessed Daniel Brottier, Priest and Confessor

Born September 7th, AD 1876 at La Ferté-Saint-Cyr, Diocese of Blois, France, Daniel Brottier was Ordained a priest in 1899. He taught at the College of Pontlevoy, France, and later entered the Congregation of the Holy Ghost (Holy Ghost Fathers) at Orly, France in 1902. He was then sent as a missionary to Saint-Louis, Senegal in 1903, though, when his health suffered, he returned to France in 1911. At the request of Bishop Jalabert, he conducted a fund-raising campaign to build a cathedral in Dakar, Senegal; he promoted the structure as a way to honour Africans who had died for France, and French who had died for Africa. The cathedral was consecrated on February 2d, 1936, just a few weeks before his death. During the First World War, he served as a chaplain in the French Army and was cited six times for bravery, being awarded also the Croix de Guerre and the Legion of Honour. Father Brottier attributed his survival on the front lines to the intercession of Saint Therese of Lisieux, and built a chapel in her honor at Auteuil when she was canonized. After the war he administered the Orphan Apprentices of Auteuil. Honoured in his life and today as a man who put the family of God above considerations of nationality or race, he died on February 28th, 1936 of natural causes at Paris. At his Requiem, 15,000 Parisiens turned out to honour him, and Cardinal Verdier preached his funeral homily.

He was beatified by Pope John Paul II. on November 25th, 1984.