City native on path to sainthood
By Nik Beimler
news@fosters.com
news@fosters.com
Posted Dec. 19, 2015 at 1:41 PM
Updated Dec 19, 2015 at 1:43 PM
DOVER — Brother William Gagnon, a Dover native born in 1905, is on the path to become the first saint in New Hampshire’s history and only the second person born in the United States to be canonized.
Gagnon, a member of the Hospitaller Order of Saint John of God, has been recognized as a canonization candidate for his work tending to the sick and dying in Vietnam before his death in Ho Chi Minh City in 1972.
On Monday, Pope Francis recognized Gagnon’s “heroic virtue” and gave him the title of “Venerable.” This declaration is the second of four steps toward sainthood, following the proclamation of the title of “Servant of God.”
“I was speaking to a brother from Vietnam who didn’t know (Gagnon) personally but had heard many stories about him,” said Provincial Secretary Stephen de la Rosa of the Hospitaller Order in Los Angeles. “What came out in those stories is that he was totally committed to every task from the simplest to the most complicated. Through that virtue, he discovered his faith.”
Gagnon, who had French-Canadian parents, joined the group in Montreal in 1932 and first went to serve in Vietnam in 1952. While at the Bui-Chu Mission in northern Vietnam, he cared for sick and wounded refugees, many of whom were victims of the Vietnam War, and worked to further establish the Hospitaller Order in Southeast Asia. Gagnon died of a heart attack on Feb. 28, 1972 at the age of 66.
“He gave of himself in Vietnam,” said Father Agapit Jean of the Parish of the Assumption in Dover. “The work that he did there was amazing. To be able to care for people in a foreign land, especially Vietnam at that time in history, is a wonderful thing. We are able to celebrate that someone from our community is being honored in such a beautiful way.”
The Hospitaller Order has origins dating back to the 16th century in Granada, Spain. Its mission is to provide assistance for the sick and needy, according to the organization’s website, hospitallers.org.
“In this day and age, it helps us to understand humility in a person who reaches sainthood,” de la Rosa said. “(Gagnon) was a hard worker and didn’t seek praise for his work.”
To receive the name of “Venerable,” the Congregation for the Causes of Saints reviews a potential saint’s life and writings in the Vatican to confirm that nothing in them goes against the teachings of the Catholic Church. As part of this process, a member of the Congregation is named “devil’s advocate” and is tasked with raising arguments against the candidate’s saintliness.
Gagnon’s next step to becoming a saint is beatification and the name of “Blessed.” To earn that honor, his intercession will have to be credited with a miracle to prove his union with God after death. To officially be called a saint, a second miracle must then be recognized.
On Friday, Pope Francis decreed that Mother Teresa would become a saint after a second miracle, the inexplicable recovery of a Brazilian man suffering from a viral brain infection in 2009, had been credited to her intercession. According to an AP story, the man’s wife prayed to Mother Teresa while her husband was sick and in surgery.
Currently, the only American-born saint is Katharine Drexel, founder of Xavier University, who was canonized by Pope John Paul II in 2000. Saint Kateri Tekakwitha and Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton were both born in America, but before the revolution and founding of the United States
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