Newly beatified Fr. Francisco de Paula Victor: “His life was a Gospel.”

The newly beatified, Fr. Francisco de Paula Victor was a Brazilian priest and son of a slave. Against all odds, he became a priest. He was beatified last Saturday at an open air Mass presided over by Cardinal Angelo Amato, the Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints. He is the first black Brazilian to be beatified.

Fr. Victor lived between 1827 and 1905.

Speaking about the beatification, last Sunday during the Angelus, in St. Peter’s Basilica, Pope Francis said, “Yesterday, in Três Pontas, in the state of Minas Gerais in Brazil, was beatified Fr. Francisco de Paula Victor, a Brazilian priest of African descent, the son of a slave. He was a generous pastor, zealous in teaching Catechism and in the administration of Sacraments.” The Pope added, “He especially distinguished himself for his great humility. May his extraordinary testimony be a model for many priests, called to be humble servants of the people of God,” Pope Francis prayed.

Against all odds and challenging racial prejudice and other obstacles, Fr. Victor went on to take the path that would lead him to the priesthood.

He was ordained priest on 14 June 1851 by Venerable Bishop Antônio Ferreira Viçoso. The ordination surprised his fellow seminarians. Much of the population did not accept that a former black slave could become a priest. Initially many people would not receive the Eucharist from him. At Três Pontas where he was sent as an Assistant Parish priest, he was met with both confusion and anger. At Masses that he celebrated, he was subjected to all types of humiliation. Fr. Victor lived on donations, alone and in a simple farmhouse where he soon became known for his humble and charitable nature.

Eventually, he was able to win-over several parishioners because of his humility. Those who knew him would later testify to the words inscribed on his tombstone In the parish of Três Pontas, "His life was a Gospel."

A miracle attributed to the intercession of Fr. Francisco de Paula Victor paved the way for beatification. A Brazilian woman was told by doctors that she could not conceive because of a complication. She prayed through the intercession of Fr. Victor and was able to conceive and bear a child.

Brazil was the last country in the Western world to abolish slavery in 1888. By then, an estimated 4.9 million slaves had been transported from Africa to Brazil where they worked mostly in the sugar and cotton plantations.

(Paul Samasumo, VR)

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