GERARD, JEAN-BAPTISTE. - Missionary, b. at Bouxières-aux-Chênes, diocese of Nancy, on 13 March 1831, d. at Boma (Basutoland), on 29 May 1914, in repute of sanctity. In 1852 he entered the Oblates of Mary Immaculate. From 1853 he was a missionary among the Zulus in Natal and in 1862 accompanied Msgr. François Allard (1806-95) to found the mission of Basutoland. Having with arduous labor laid the foundations at Boma (Basutoland), he began in 1876 the mission in the north of the country, while Fr. Marcellin Deltour (1843-1905) continued the work of Boma. G. published the first Catholic writings in Sesotho: a primer, a catechism, a sacred history, a translation of the Gospel of St. Luke. The obstructionism of the pagans and of the Protestants from 1833 onward allowed only a slow progress of the missionary work. Yet G. was still able to see the beginnings of the great wave of conversion inaugurated under Msgr. Jules Cènez (1865-1944) in 1910. The process of beatification has been introduced.

Bibliography

BIBL.: J.-C. Zeltner, Le père Gérard, apôtre du Basutoland, in Etudes Oblates, 7 (1948, III), pp. 196-210.

Giovanni Rommerskirchen

@incollection{ec6_gerard_jean_baptiste, author = {Rommerskirchen, Giovanni}, title = {Gerard, jean-baptiste}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {VI}, pages = {83--84}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1951}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/gerard-jean-baptiste} }

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Gerard, Jean-Baptiste

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