Buch (Buche, Busch), Michel-Henri, known as Le Bon Henri

BUCH (Buche, Busch), Michel-Henri, known as Le Bon Henri. - Founder of the "Fratelli calzolari" (Shoemakers' Brothers), b. 13 May 1598 at Arlon (Luxembourg), where he attended the school of the Carmelites, d. in Paris on 9 June 1666. As an itinerant shoemaker through Luxembourg, the Rhineland and France, he carried on, following the example of Sts. Crispin and Crispinian, an effective apostolate among his fellow craftsmen, and reclaimed many of them from vice to an exemplary Christian life. Having settled in Paris and become the friend and collaborator of Baron Gaston de Renty (v.), one of the directors of the "Compagnie du St-Sacrement", he founded there, under his patronage and with the support of St. Vincent de Paul and the approval of Archbishop Gondi, the association of the "Fratelli calzolari".

The Société des frères chrétiens cordonniers de st Crépin et st Crépinien (act of foundation of 2 Feb. 1645, in A. Bessières, p. 430), united its members in a community of life and work, to serve God and neighbor. Without true religious vows, the members promised celibacy and obedience to the superior elected by them, living on the fruit of their own labor and devoting the surplus to the needy, especially those of the same trade. On this model the Association of Tailors arose in 1647. Similar foundations followed elsewhere. B. continued to direct his work and died, after a long illness, in repute of sanctity on 9 June 1666.

The French martyrology (on 9 June) and the Petits Bollandistes give him the title of venerable, but it does not appear that his cause of beatification was ever introduced. His work, widely diffused, survived until the French Revolution.

Anselmo Musters