Blessed Frédéric Janssoone

Frédéric Janssoone, O.F.M., also known as Frédéric of Ghyvelde or Frédéric of Saint-Yves (19 November 1838 — 4 August 1916), was a French-born Franciscan friar and priest who worked in France, Egypt, Palestine and Quebec, where he died. He was a popular preacher who re-established the Order of Friars Minor in Canada. He has been beatified by the Catholic Church. Janssoone was born in the town of Ghyvelde, in the French Department of Nord, the country's most northwestern corner, on 19 November 1838. It is a part of French Flanders where the local language is a dialect of Flemish. He was the eighth and youngest of the thirteen children of Pierre-Antoine Janssoone and Marie-Isabelle Bollengier, and was christened Frédéric-Cornil. He was born into a prosperous farming family who prized culture, education and their faith. Janssone was just nine years old in January 1848 when his father died. Four years later, in response, to a religious calling, the young Frédéric enrolled in a college and then graduated to the Institut Notre-Dame des Dunes in nearby Dunkirk to prepare for the priesthood. In 1855, however, the family fell on hard times, so the boy left school to help support his mother and siblings. He went to work for some textile merchants, for whom he became a traveling salesman. He soon realized that he had a talent for selling. He liked meeting new people and he knew how to explain his products. His mother died in 1861, at which point Janssoone decided to resume his studies. After their completion, on 24 June 1864, he entered the novitiate of the Friars Minor, where he added the patronage of St. Yves to his name, making his profession the following year. He was ordained in Bourges on 17 August 1870. His ordination was done earlier than in the normal scheme, due to the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War at the time. Military chaplains were in great need, and he was quickly assigned to serve at a military hospital.