JEAN-BAPTISTE GERARD. Missionary, b. at Bousières-aux-Chênes, diocese of Nancy, 13 March 1831, d. at Boma (Basutoland), 29 May 1914, in repute for holiness. In 1852 he entered the Oblates of Mary Immaculate. From 1853 he was a missionary among the Zulu in Natal and in 1862 accompanied Mgr. François Allard (1806–95) in founding the mission in Basutoland. After laboriously laying the foundations at Boma (Basutoland), in 1876 he began the mission in the north of the country, while Fr. Marcellino Deltour (1843–1905) continued the work at Boma. G. published the first Catholic writings in Sesotho: an alphabet primer, a catechism, a sacred history, and a translation of the Gospel of St. Luke. The obstruction of pagans and Protestants, which had persisted since 1833, allowed only slow progress in the missionary work. Yet G. lived to see the beginnings of the great wave of conversions inaugurated under Mgr. Jules Cénce (1865–1944) in 1910. The cause of beatification has been introduced.
GERARD, JEAN-BAPTISTE
Bibl.: J.-C. Zeltner, Le père Gérard, apôtre du Barutoland, in Études Oblates, 7 (1948, iii), pp. 196–210.