Venerable Leon Dehon

Léon-Gustave Dehon, SCJ (14 March 1843 – 12 August 1925), also known as Jean of the Sacred Heart, was a French Catholic priest and the founder of the Congregation of the Sacred Heart of Jesus (the Dehonians). Dehon's focus in his ecclesial life was to express his closeness with workers but he especially promoted a devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. He established an order in 1878 dedicated to this task and to working in the foreign and diocesan missions in France and abroad. But impediments caused the order's dissolution. Dehon later reformed and reestablished it in 1884, leading the order until his death. It expanded to North and South America in the early 20th century. The process for his beatification started in 1952. It was revived in the late 20th century, and information gathering included documentation of a miracle in South America. The process was halted in 2005 due to allegations by both clerical and secular sources that his published works were anti-Semitic in nature. He had been named as Venerable on 8 March 1997. Léon-Gustave Dehon was born in La Capelle in Soissons on 14 March 1843 to Alexandre-Jules Dehon (1814–82) and Stephanie Vandelet. His baptism was celebrated on 24 March 1843. Dehon's mother fostered a deep devotion to the Sacred Heart and encouraged her son in this practice. He received his First Communion on 4 June 1854 and was Confirmed on 1 June 1857. In 1855 he was sent to the college at Hazebrouck, where he studied under noted priest Jacques Dehaene, and graduated in August 1859. In his adolescence Dehon felt called to the priesthood (which manifested at Christmas 1865), but his father sent him for higher education to the Sorbonne in Paris. He earned a degree in civil law on 2 April 1864 (with top honors), after studying from 1860 to 1864. He had spent much of his free time in a local church.