Joseph Gérard

Father Jean -Joseph Gérard, OMI ( born March 12, 1831 in Bouxières -aux- Chenes, † May 29, 1914 in Roma, Basutoland ) was a missionary in Basutoland (now Lesotho). He was an Oblate of Mary Immaculate.

Jean -Joseph Gérard visited from 1844, the church school in Pont -à -Mousson, 1849, he came into Nancy in the seminary. In 1851 he began his novitiate at the Oblates in Notre- Dame-de- l_Osier. In 1850 he was ordained a deacon and traveled together with a missionary group to South Africa. In 1853 he came to the Zulu in Natal, where he endeavored in vain to win the Zulu for the Christian faith. From 1862 he worked in Basutoland and spread because of his work, the Roman Catholic Church there rapidly. He wrote a catechism, a reading book, a Bible story and a gospel of Luke in Sesotho, the national language of the Basotho. He died on 29 May 1914 in Roma in the odor of sanctity.

He was beatified on 15 September 1988 by Pope John Paul II. His Catholic feast day is May 29