Servant of God John Hardon

John Anthony Hardon (June 18, 1914 – December 30, 2000) was an American Jesuit priest, writer, teacher and theologian. As a beatification process was opened for him in 2005, he is recognized by the Catholic Church as a Servant of God. John Hardon was born on June 18, 1914, to John and Anna Hardon in Midland, Pennsylvania. When he was a year old, John Hardon Sr. died in an industrial accident. After the accident, Hardon was raised by his 26-year-old mother Anna (née Jevin) Hardon. The two moved to Cleveland, Ohio. A devout Catholic, Anna Hardon never remarried "out of concern for the influence a possible stepfather might have on her son's vocation." John Janaro, a Hardon biographer, described Anna as "a woman of deep faith, a Franciscan tertiary who embraced her poverty and her difficult circumstances with courage and grace". Anna "attended daily Mass and received Holy Communion" and her home "had sacred pictures, a family holy water font, and a good deal of spiritual conversation". Hardon later recalled that they only spoke Slav at home. He contrasted it to English which he believed was "the worst language in the world to try to talk Catholicism in." Hardon was Anna's only child, and she supported him by cleaning offices in Cleveland, often working nights. Janaro reports that as a child Hardon was "willful and self-possessed; he was determined that no one was going to tell him what to do"; but he was soon affected by his mother's example. Hardon would often recall that his mother told him that the very purpose of knees "are for kneeling to pray before God". For added income Anna took in two young Lutheran girls as boarders, who lived with the family for at least eight years. At one point, the three-year-old Hardon protested at having to abstain from meat on Friday, unlike "sisters". To solve the problem, Anna asked the girls "My boy is growing up: he's asking embarrassing questions.