Today, June 10, is the memorial of Blessed Edward Poppe.
A follower of St. Therese of Lisieux’s “The Little Way,” Edward was one of 11 children and born in Belgium. One brother became a priest, five sisters were nuns.
He felt a call to the priesthood early in life. When his father died, Edward wanted to take over the family business, but his mother insisted that he continue in the seminary. As seminarians were subject to military service, Edward was drafted.
He became a World War I battlefield nurse. His prayers to St. Joseph led to the miraculous freeing of several prisoners of war.
In 1916, he was ordained priest. His ministry was among the poor, the children and the dying. He taught catechism, founded Eucharistic associations, and worked against the secularization of life in his city.
Despite his fragile health, he continued working until his non-fatal heart attack. He then spent his days studying, praying, and writing hundreds of articles and thousands of letters against Marxism, secularism, and materialism. He was heavily into evangelization, and served as a seminary spiritual director. His weak heart condition did not stop him from carrying out his duties.
Edward was a devotee of St. Therese of the Child Jesus. He visited her tomb in 1920, and adopted her “Little Way.”
At age 33, Edward died from a stroke in 1924. He was beatified in 1999 by Pope St. John Paul II.