Saint Joseph Gérard

Joseph Gérard, OMI (12 March 1831 – 29 May 1914) was a French Catholic priest and a professed member from the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate; he worked in the missions among the Basotho people in Lesotho and the Free State province of South Africa. His works in the mission are now attributed to a partial degree to a boom in Catholicism in Lesotho, where he was well-known and regarded for his extensive work; he was even working up until a month prior to his own death just before World War I. His beatification was celebrated in Lesotho on 15 September 1988. Joseph Gérard was born in Bouxières-aux-Chênes on 12 March 1831 as the eldest of five children to Jean Gérard and Ursule Stofflet. He spent his childhood on his farm and had a religious upbringing. He made his First Communion on 2 February 1842 and received his Confirmation on 24 March 1844. He received his religious education from the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate and he later joined their order on 9 May 1851 when he commenced his period of the novitiate. He studied in the minor seminary of Pont-à-Mousson from October 1844 before moving to Nancy for his theological studies. He was there from October 1849 until later pursuing it in Marseille from mid-1852; he then completed them while in South Africa. He was not a gifted academic but rather was quick and adept at learning languages which would help him in learning the Zulu and Sesotho languages that he used for his active work in the missions. Gérard moved to South Africa in 1853 and never returned to his native France. He made his perpetual vows on 10 May 1852. The order's founder Eugène de Mazenod elevated him to the diaconate and on 3 April 1853 assigned him to Natal in South Africa in 1853; he set off not long after on 10 May after bidding farewell to his family the previous day. He arrived in Natal on 21 January 1854. Gérard was ordained to the priesthood at Pietermaritzburg on 19 February 1854 and received ordination from Bishop Allard.