Bl. Francis Gárate, Religious

Bl. Francis Gárate was born on February 3, 1857, in Spain’s Basque country, in a tiny hamlet near the castle where St. Ignatius of Loyola (see July 31) was born. Francis left home when he was fourteen years of age (1871) and began working as a domestic at the Jesuit college in Orduña, and three years later he entered (1874) the Society of Jesus as a coadjutor brother. He was then appointed (1877) infirmarian at the college at La Guardia, near the Portuguese border—he had some 200 young boys under his care. He thought nothing of spending an entire night at the bedside of a sick student and then doing a full day’s work the following day. After ten years, the strain on his health began to show, and in 1888 he was transferred to the University of Deusto, in Bilbao, to be doorkeeper. He filled that post for forty-one years. There is nothing remarkable in Francis’s life, except that everyone took note of his limitless kindness, goodness, humility, and prayerfulness. He prayed while he worked, and he worked while he prayed. He became holy through his unfailing dedication in serving God, as today’s prayer reminds us. He was practically never without a rosary in his hand. He died on September 9, 1929, and was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1985.