![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/leandresz.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/G\u00e9rard-Raymond-200x336.jpg?resize=200%2C336\" "\\"G\u00e9rard")
<\/a>\u00ab\u00a0G\u00e9rard Raymond, \u00e9tudiant au S\u00e9minaire de Qu\u00e9bec, est mort d’une h\u00e9morragie pulmonaire, le 5 juillet 1932, \u00e0 l’\u00e2ge de vingt ans. Sa vie fut apparemment celle d’un adolescent simplement fid\u00e8le \u00e0 son devoir de chaque jour, mais son Journal intime, \u00e9crit avec un abandon charmant, nous r\u00e9v\u00e8le une rare union \u00e0 Notre Seigneur, qui grandit jusqu’au d\u00e9sir du martyre. G\u00e9rard Raymond, donn\u00e9 en exemple \u00e0 la jeunesse du Canada, m\u00e9rite d’\u00eatre connu en dehors de son pays: son exemple sera pour beaucoup une lumi\u00e8re et une force\u00a0\u00bb. (P\u00e8re R\u00e9ginald Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P.)<\/span>\u00a0<\/p>\r\n A partir de l’\u00e2ge de 15 ans, suivant l’exemple de Paul Emile Lavall\u00e9e, dont il lisait la vie, G\u00e9rard Raymond entreprend d’\u00e9crire un petit journal. C’est dans ces \u00e9crits tout simples que nous puiserons largement au cours des lignes suivantes. Pourquoi G\u00e9rard a-t-il \u00e9crit un journal? Il nous donne lui-m\u00eame la r\u00e9ponse: \u00ab\u00a0Il faut que j’\u00e9crive chaque jour pour m’apercevoir des progr\u00e8s ou des reculs que je fais, pour renouveler mes r\u00e9solutions, pour acqu\u00e9rir de la volont\u00e9; j’en ai besoin…. Je sais bien que mon ennemi voudrait l’\u00e9loigner de ce Journal qui me force \u00e0 r\u00e9fl\u00e9chir…. Mr Nadeau approuve mon journal. Ce journal, \u00f4 mon Dieu, je veux qu’il soit un long colloque avec Vous, o\u00f9 je Vous dirai mes peines et mes joies, et o\u00f9 je reviendrai me retremper dans les jours o\u00f9 ma ferveur faiblira… Je Vous remercie des gr\u00e2ces innombrables que Vous m’avez accord\u00e9es depuis que je l’ai commenc\u00e9. Je Vous l’offre avec tout ce que je poss\u00e8de pour Votre plus grande gloire\u00a0\u00bb.<\/span><\/p>\r\n \u00a0<\/p>\r\n G\u00e9rard n’a donc pas \u00e9crit pour les autres, pour \u00eatre lu, et cet \u00e9l\u00e9ments contribue \u00e0 faire le charme de ses notes. Il \u00e9crit le plus simplement du monde. Ses phrases, tout en nous parlant des choses ordinaires, nous livrent le secret d’une \u00e2me vraiment admirable. Son grand amour de Dieu, G\u00e9rard l’a aliment\u00e9 au foyer par excellence: la Sainte Eucharistie. Sa Foi en la Pr\u00e9sence r\u00e9elle de J\u00e9sus au Tabernacle \u00e9tait profonde. Voici la r\u00e9solution qu’il avait prise avec un de ses compagnons de classe: \u00ab\u00a0Chaque fois que nous passerons devant une \u00e9glise, nous entrerons une minute visiter J\u00e9sus. Quoi de plus logique d’ailleurs? J\u00e9sus est l\u00e0, notre meilleur Ami. Le plus souvent Il est seul. Il nous invite \u00e0 entrer, pourquoi refuser? Certains gens pourrons nous traiter de fous. Soit! Jamais nous ne pourrons porter cette folie plus loin que celle de J\u00e9sus qui a voulu Se cacher dans l’Hostie pour toujours, s’exposer \u00e0 l’indiff\u00e9rence, aux m\u00e9pris, aux outrages. Nous aurons beau rivaliser d’amour avec Lui, jamais nous ne pourrons L’\u00e9galiser\u00a0\u00bb.<\/span><\/p>\r\n \u00a0<\/p>\r\n Aller \u00e0 J\u00e9sus par Marie: l’enfant avait appris de sa m\u00e8re ce grand secret: on trouve souvent dans ses cahiers les invocations suivantes: Marie M\u00e9diatrice, Notre Dame du Rosaire! O ma M\u00e8re! C’est gr\u00e2ce \u00e0 cette pi\u00e9t\u00e9 eucharistique et mariale qu’il a pu passer \u00e0 travers la vie sans souiller s\u00e9rieusement son \u00e2me. C’est lui-m\u00eame qui l’indique ing\u00e9nument dans ses notes de retraite ferm\u00e9e, \u00e0 la fin de sa premi\u00e8re ann\u00e9e de philosophie: \u00ab\u00a0Je n’ai pas trouv\u00e9 dans mon pass\u00e9 de p\u00e9ch\u00e9 grave. Je sais que cela vient de Vous, \u00f4 J\u00e9sus, de Vous seul. Moi, de moi-m\u00eame, je ne suis que n\u00e9ant, je ne suis rien, je ne suis capable que du mal, rempli de faiblesses et d’ingratitude, toujours pr\u00eat \u00e0 m’\u00e9lever au-dessus des autres avec orgueil. J’ai peur, \u00f4 J\u00e9sus, de la vanit\u00e9 sotte. Apprenez-moi \u00e0 \u00eatre doux et humble de c\u0153ur\u00a0\u00bb. Le 23 d\u00e9cembre 1927, alors qu’il commen\u00e7ait sa troisi\u00e8me au S\u00e9minaire, il \u00e9crit: \u00ab\u00a0Si un jour je parviens \u00e0 ce que j’aspire, si je deviens un pr\u00eatre du Bon Dieu, oh! En ce jour que ma pri\u00e8re sera ardente, avec quelle ferveur je remercierai Dieu de m’avoir donn\u00e9 une si bonne m\u00e8re. J’esp\u00e8re gravir les marches de l’autel, et m\u00eame le soup\u00e7onnez-vous?…. je d\u00e9sire \u00eatre missionnaire pour \u00e9tendre le r\u00e8gne de J\u00e9sus-Christ parmi les infid\u00e8les qui vivent dans le paganisme\u00a0\u00bb.<\/span><\/p>\r\n \u00a0<\/p>\r\n Le jeudi 23 f\u00e9vrier 1928, lendemain du Mercredi des Cendres, il nous fait part de ses r\u00e9flexions et de son programme pour le Car\u00eame: \u00ab\u00a0Voil\u00e0 le Car\u00eame commenc\u00e9… Pour ma part, ne je\u00fbnant pas, je dois faire des sacrifices dans mes habitudes, mon manger et tous mes actes. Le sucre va dispara\u00eetre pour moi; je t\u00e2cherai de ne plus manquer la Messe et surtout de la bien entendre. Le nombre de mes visites au Saint Sacrement augmentera. Meilleurs seront mes devoirs, mieux apprises mes le\u00e7ons, enfin je ferai tout mon possible pour plaire \u00e0 J\u00e9sus en me mortifiant\u00a0\u00bb. Il \u00e9tait \u00e9l\u00e8ve de Seconde au S\u00e9minaire, quand il \u00e9crivit cette r\u00e9solution le 13 janvier 1929: \u00ab\u00a0H\u00e9las! Je n’ai pas \u00e0 m’enorgueillir de ma perfection. J’en suis encore tr\u00e8s loin, il me reste du gros travail \u00e0 faire. Le plus dur sera de mettre \u00e0 terre ma volont\u00e9, de l’arracher par lambeaux, de la fouler aux pieds. Il sera dur aussi se devenir humble parfaitement\u00a0\u00bb. Vigilant contre l’orgueil, il ne se laisse pas emporter par ses succ\u00e8s scolaire. Le 11 mars 1929 il \u00e9crit: \u00ab\u00a0Au milieu des succ\u00e8s, ce grade d’acad\u00e9micien, ces trois derniers concours o\u00f9 je me suis class\u00e9 en premier, c’est le temps de faire taire l’orgueil, car il \u00e9l\u00e8ve la voix! Je n’ai qu’\u00e0 consid\u00e9rer ma petitesse vis-\u00e0-vis de l’Immensit\u00e9 de Dieu pour laisser l\u00e0 toute pens\u00e9e orgueilleuse. Tout ce que je poss\u00e8de, je ne le poss\u00e8de pas; on me l’a pr\u00eat\u00e9. Et ce talent que je poss\u00e8de, ou plut\u00f4t que Dieu m’a pr\u00eat\u00e9, je dois le faire fructifier le plus possible, sinon je manque \u00e0 mon devoir. Que d’autres consid\u00e9rations peuvent encore me faire baisser la t\u00eate!\u00a0\u00bb<\/span><\/p>\r\n \u00a0<\/p>\r\n Le jeune homme de 17 ans se r\u00e9v\u00e8le davantage dans cette admirable pri\u00e8re du 26 juin 1929: \u00ab\u00a0O mon Dieu, je veux Vous aimer de tout mon c\u0153ur. Faites-moi ch\u00e9rir la souffrance cach\u00e9e. Faites que je sois passionn\u00e9 de faire Votre Sainte Volont\u00e9. O J\u00e9sus que je sois petit aux yeux du monde et grand \u00e0 vos yeux\u00a0\u00bb. A la fin des vacances de cette ann\u00e9e-l\u00e0, G\u00e9rard \u00e9crit \u00e0 son Directeur un compte-rendu des activit\u00e9s et des aspirations des mois pass\u00e9s. En voici quelques extraits: \u00ab\u00a0Durant mes vacances, je n’ai pas cess\u00e9 de penser \u00e0 ma vocation…. Il y a quelques ann\u00e9es, en lisant une revue des P\u00e8res Blancs, l’id\u00e9e me vint de devenir missionnaire, moi aussi. Lais plus tard (apr\u00e8s avoir lu un article dans l’Almanach Franciscain, un livre par Saint Fran\u00e7ois de Sales et l’autobiographie de Sainte Th\u00e9r\u00e8se de l’Enfant J\u00e9sus) je r\u00eavais d’une vie cach\u00e9e, clo\u00eetr\u00e9e, humble, loin du monde o\u00f9, tout \u00e0 J\u00e9sus, je ferai le travail de ma sanctification, comme Dieu m\u00eame me le conseillait dans toutes mes lectures. Je choisis alors d’\u00eatre Franciscain. Mes r\u00eaves de missionnaire seraient en m\u00eame temps r\u00e9alis\u00e9s puisque les Franciscains vont en missions pa\u00efennes… O\u00f9 pourrai-je mieux satisfaire mes r\u00eaves d’abaissement t de m\u00e9pris?….\u00a0\u00bb<\/span><\/p>\r\n \u00a0<\/p>\r\n Pr\u00eatre, missionnaire Franciscain, plus que cela, G\u00e9rard veut verser son sang pour les \u00e2mes, il veut \u00eatre martyr. Le 4 octobre 193, apr\u00e8s une conf\u00e9rence du P\u00e8re Donc\u0153ur, \u00e0 l’Universit\u00e9 Laval, au cours de laquelle l’\u00e9minent J\u00e9suite avait parl\u00e9 aux jeunes de l’importance de vivre totalement ses croyances, G\u00e9rard consigne ses r\u00e9flexions: \u00ab\u00a0Moi aussi, je veux pratiquer ce Christianisme int\u00e9gral. Moi aussi, je veux placer la Croix au-dessus de toute r\u00e9alisation, je veux embrasser la Croix, avec le S\u00e9raphique P\u00e8re Fran\u00e7ois dont l’Eglise c\u00e9l\u00e8bre aujourd’hui la F\u00eate. Moi aussi, je veux profiter de ma jeunesse pour concevoir de grandes choses avec Foi, avec enthousiasme, pour pouvoir les r\u00e9aliser au moins un peu… Comme id\u00e9al, \u00eatre un Saint, dans toute la force du mot, avec tout ce que r\u00e9clame la Saintet\u00e9. Tout pour J\u00e9sus. Mon Dieu et mon tout. Saint Fran\u00e7ois, priez pour moi. J\u00e9sus, aidez-moi\u00a0\u00bb. Le 13 novembre, il confirme sa r\u00e9solution: \u00ab\u00a0J’ai bien m\u00e9dit\u00e9, j’ai parl\u00e9 au Bon Dieu. Le crucifiement de Notre Seigneur m’a fait r\u00e9fl\u00e9chir. J’ai pens\u00e9 que Notre Seigneur s’\u00e9tait laiss\u00e9 enfoncer les clous dans les mains et dans les pieds sans mot dire. Et moi, je ne pourrais souffrir que l’on touche ma susceptibilit\u00e9, que l’on enfonce le moindre petit clou? Et j’ai pris la r\u00e9solution de tout souffrir patiemment (\u2026) Oui \u00f4 J\u00e9sus, aujourd’hui encore je recommence. Je sais que tout seul je ne puis rien. Mais avec Vous, j’ai confiance en Vous, en Votre Bont\u00e9, en Votre Mis\u00e9ricorde, Votre Amour. Vous voulez m’attirer \u00e0 Vous sur Votre C\u0153ur, faire de moi un Saint: faites! Je veux Vous laisser agir par n’importe quel moyen. Je veux Vous aimer toujours\u00a0\u00bb.<\/span><\/p>\r\n \u00a0<\/p>\r\n C’est au milieu de ces pr\u00e9occupations de Saintet\u00e9 et de d\u00e9vouement pour la Foi que le terrible mal qui venait l’emporter est venu le chercher. Le jeune homme \u00e9tait atteint de la tuberculose pulmonaire. Progressant lentement, le mal ne faisait tout d’abord que l’affaiblir. C’\u00e9tait pour lui des occasions de pratiquer la r\u00e9signation, et avec quelle ferveur il acceptait la souffrance! \u00ab\u00a0Vers le soir, \u00e9crit-il le 26 juin 1930, je me suis bless\u00e9: j’ai march\u00e9 sur un clou. Et ce matin je suis incapable de marcher. Hier au soir, la douleur m’a gard\u00e9 longtemps \u00e9veill\u00e9, Dieu soit b\u00e9ni! Aujourd’hui je suis donc malade, ce qui ne m’arrive pas souvent: Dieu soit b\u00e9ni! Il m’est si peu souvent donn\u00e9 l’occasion de souffrir, je dois accueillir avec joie et empressement cette occasion qui se pr\u00e9sente. Quand la douleur est trop forte et que je veux me r\u00e9veiller, je regarde mon Crucifix\u00a0\u00bb. Le 11 septembre 1930, au lendemain de l’ouverture de la Retraite, il \u00e9crit: \u00ab\u00a0O J\u00e9sus, je veux Vous ressembler davantage. Je veux passer ma vie \u00e0 travailler pour sculpter Votre Image en moi. Dans l’Ordre Franciscain surtout, si c’est l\u00e0 que Vous m’appelez, je t\u00e2cherai de Vous ressembler. Comme Vous, je veux souffrir et mourir, apr\u00e8s avoir v\u00e9cu dans la pauvret\u00e9, l’humilit\u00e9 et la chastet\u00e9. Mon r\u00eave Vous le connaissez, \u00f4 J\u00e9sus. C’est de pouvoir, un jour, Vous ressembler compl\u00e8tement, si possible, en versant comme Vous mon sang pour les p\u00e9cheurs. Accordez-moi, je Vous en prie, la gr\u00e2ce du martyre. Pour aujourd’hui, je m’offre \u00e0 Vous en victime pour mes quelques confr\u00e8res qui ne veulent pas faire une bonne Retraite. Pour eux mes sacrifices. B\u00e9nissez-moi et faites que ma Retraite soit bonne et fructueuse\u00a0\u00bb. On ne peut qu’admirer les pr\u00e9occupations apostoliques bien r\u00e9elles de ce grand c\u0153ur.<\/span><\/p>\r\n \u00a0<\/p>\r\n \u00a0<\/p>\r\n A partir de cette Retraite, ses immenses d\u00e9sirs de sacrifice s’enflamment toujours plus, aussi, il se rend compte de sa faiblesse. Sans cesse il se reproche son inconstance \u00e0 suivre son r\u00e8glement, sa paresse, son peu de volont\u00e9. A ce sujet, un Pr\u00eatre \u00e9crivit apr\u00e8s la lecture du journal du jeune s\u00e9minariste: \u00ab\u00a0Dans sa profonde humilit\u00e9, il attribue \u00e0 la n\u00e9gligence ce qui n’est que l’effet de la maladie; car d\u00e9j\u00e0, il est sournoisement travaill\u00e9, sans le savoir. Par le mal myst\u00e9rieux qui le conduira au tombeau quelques mois plus tard\u00a0\u00bb. Les notes des derniers mois de sa vie font de fr\u00e9quentes allusions \u00e0 la mort prochaine qu’il entrevoit. Le 19 juin 1931, il \u00e9crit: \u00ab\u00a0L’affaire du Salut est personnelle. Dieu nous a fait sans nous… Je veux \u00eatre pr\u00eat \u00e0 mourir n’importe quand; aujourd’hui je suis pr\u00eat, \u00f4 J\u00e9sus venez si c’est le temps…. Vous savez, \u00f4 mon Dieu, la mort que je Vous demande, malgr\u00e9 mon indignit\u00e9. Puiss\u00e9-je mourir martyr! Tout comme J\u00e9sus, jusqu’au bout… Pour Vous, pour Votre amour et pour sauver les \u00e2mes. C’est l\u00e0 le seul moyen que j’aurai de r\u00e9pondre un peu \u00e0 Votre amour, et encore ce ne serait pas assez. Je veux me mortifier toute ma vie, vivre en Saint pour m\u00e9riter cette faveur, cette mort si belle… Je veux Vous suivre, je veux Vous aider pour ramener les p\u00e9cheurs… Vous donnez Votre vie, je Vous donnerai la mienne; Vous souffrez, je souffrirai; Vous mourez pour eux et pour moi, je mourrai pour eux et pour Vous. D\u00e8s ce moment, attachez-moi \u00e0 Vous pour toujours. O J\u00e9sus, et avec Vous, avec Vous seulement, je monterai jusqu’aux sommets\u00a0\u00bb.<\/span><\/p>\r\n \u00a0<\/p>\r\n Le dernier jour de d\u00e9cembre de cette ann\u00e9e 1931, il est seul \u00e0 la maison parce que ses parents sont partis \u00e0 Montr\u00e9al pour assister \u00e0 la Profession Religieuse de leur fille a\u00een\u00e9e, Soeur Marie-Camille, le la Congr\u00e9gation Notre Dame. Il \u00e9crit dans son journal: \u00ab\u00a0Un mot avant que l’ann\u00e9e se termine. Ma derni\u00e8re ann\u00e9e compl\u00e8te dans le monde n’a pas \u00e9t\u00e9 ce que j’aurais souhait\u00e9 qu’elle f\u00fbt au point de vue spirituel. Depuis le d\u00e9but des vacances de No\u00ebl, je vivote vaille que vaille. D’abord je suis malade: fi\u00e8vre, grippe, mal de t\u00eate, mal d’estomac, etc. Aujourd’hui je suis un peu mieux, mais encore assez mal. Je pourrais me servir ce ces jours de maladie pour m’\u00e9lever vers Dieu, je reste coll\u00e9 au sol\u00a0\u00bb. \u00ab\u00a0Je vois bien des points noirs dans l’ann\u00e9e qui s’en va. Je veux que celle qui s’en vient soit toute blanche. Blanche… ou rouge, car je suis pr\u00eat. J’accepte toutes les douleurs, tous les sacrifices que pourra m’apporter 1932. R\u00e9signation joyeuse, conformit\u00e9 \u00e0 la Volont\u00e9 de Dieu, c’est bien le moins que je puisse faire quand mes r\u00e9solutions sont si faibles, ma volont\u00e9 si d\u00e9bile. Acceptez, J\u00e9sus, ma bonne volont\u00e9, et transformez-la en volont\u00e9 durable et constructive\u00a0\u00bb.<\/span><\/p>\r\n \u00a0<\/p>\r\n Et voici les derni\u00e8res lignes de son journal, \u00e0 la date du 2 janvier 1932: \u00ab\u00a0Je suis encore malade un peu. En ce d\u00e9but de l’ann\u00e9e je viens de cracher ce soir, pour al premi\u00e8re fois de ma petite vie, un peu de sang. Il se peut que cela ne soit pas grave du tout… Il se peut que ce soit grave… peu importe. Je suis pr\u00eat \u00e0 tout accepter. Donner mon sang en pleine vigueur de jeunesse, cela vaut bien le martyre lointain et probl\u00e9matique d’un vieillard de demain? Faites de-moi, Bon J\u00e9sus, tout ce que Vous voudrez. Faites-moi souffrir si cela Vous pla\u00eet, je suis si l\u00e2che pour acqu\u00e9rir des m\u00e9rites autrement. D’avance, J\u00e9sus, j’accepte tout, tout… Et je suis fort, avec Vous souffrances\u00a0\u00bb. Les 8 et 9 janvier G\u00e9rard va encore au S\u00e9minaire; ces sont ses deux derniers jours de classe. Le 22 une assez forte h\u00e9morragie survient. Sont \u00e9tat s’aggrave et le 15 f\u00e9vrier, il doit prendre le chemin de l’H\u00f4pital Laval. Et quittant ses parents, il dit tout simplement: \u00ab\u00a0C’est la Volont\u00e9 du Bon Dieu\u00a0\u00bb. Pas un mot de plus. Le 5 juillet il s’\u00e9teignit paisiblement durant la nuit, apr\u00e8s une h\u00e9morragie. Les parents de G\u00e9rard, Camille Raymond et Jos\u00e9phine Poitras, lui surv\u00e9curent longtemps. Son p\u00e8re mourut en 1965, peu apr\u00e8s la fin du Proc\u00e8s informatif Dioc\u00e9sain pour la Cause de B\u00e9atification. Sa m\u00e8re atteignit l’\u00e2ge de 101 ans et mourut en 1977. Elle e\u00fbt le bonheur de recevoir les derniers sacrements des mains de son dernier fils, Fran\u00e7ois, devenu Pr\u00eatre. Chaque ann\u00e9e, pour l’anniversaire de sa mort et pour la B\u00e9atification de G\u00e9rard Raymond, une messe est c\u00e9l\u00e9br\u00e9e \u00e0 \u00e0 l\u2019\u00e9glise Sainte-Ang\u00e8le de Saint-Malo de Qu\u00e9bec.<\/span><\/p>\r\n \u00a0<\/p>\r\n Texte extrait du journal \u00ab\u00a0Magnificat\u00a0\u00bb n\u00b0 42, de novembre 2007<\/em><\/span><\/p>\r\n \u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\r\n Pri\u00e8re pour la B\u00e9atification de G\u00e9rard Raymond<\/em><\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\r\n \u00a0<\/p>\r\n Seigneur J\u00e9sus, qui avez combl\u00e9 de gr\u00e2ces Votre fid\u00e8le Serviteur G\u00e9rard Raymond, c’est en toute confiance que nous recourons \u00e0 son intercession. Faites qu’en consid\u00e9ration de ses m\u00e9rites, nous puissions obtenir la faveur (\u2026) que nous Vous demandons et toute soumission \u00e0 la Volont\u00e9 de Votre P\u00e8re. Alors nous aurons la joie de t\u00e9moigner de son cr\u00e9dit aupr\u00e8s de Vous dans le Ciel et de contribuer ainsi \u00e0 sa Glorification sur la terre. Amen.<\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\r\n \u00a0<\/p>\r\n Imprimatur<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\r\n Paul Nicole V.G.<\/span><\/p>\r\n Qu\u00e9bec, 16 ao\u00fbt 1982<\/span><\/p>\r\n \u00a0<\/p>\r\n Cause de B\u00e9atification de G\u00e9rard Raymond<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\r\n S\u00e9minaire de Qu\u00e9bec<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\r\n 1, rue des Remparts<\/span><\/p>\r\n Case Postale 460<\/span><\/p>\r\n Qu\u00e9bec (Qu\u00e9bec) G1R 5L7<\/span><\/p>\r\n <\/p> \u00ab Love, Suffer, Love \u00bb<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\r\n About two years ago, I was doing research in the G\u00e9rard Raymond papers held in the archives of the S\u00e9minaire de Qu\u00e9bec<\/em>.\u00a0 These consist mainly of his student writings, most notably his journal, but one also finds several thick files of letters and testimonials from around the world, each attesting to the exceptionally virtuous life of the 19 year-old seminarian, or soliciting special favours through his intervention.\u00a0 One letter in particular caught my eye, primarily because it was so touching.\u00a0 In phonetically broken French, a certain Mrs. Rosaire Doyon, on 16 October 1936, writes asking a seminary priest to intercede on her behalf with G\u00e9rard Raymond so that he can ask God to watch over her husband, who, she says, is not frank with her.\u00a0 He drinks and returns home late in the mornings, hides money from her and their six children, and comes and goes as he pleases.\u00a0 She is particularly worried about her eldest 15 year-old son, who may follow in his father\u2019s bad footsteps.\u00a0 She herself is not well, and she is also concerned about what the neighbours may be thinking.\u00a0 She asks that, in his response, the priest not mention any details of her difficulties, as this would only worsen things.\u00a0 She also asks for heavenly protection for her husband, and that he be made to see the error of his ways.[1]<\/a><\/span><\/p>\r\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Our sensibilities cry out against the injustice of such a situation, where a woman with few options in life finds herself caught in what was undoubtedly a cold and abusive marriage. \u00a0We also see here, however, a vivid manifestation of faith: an absolute belief and hope that, through the intercession of some exceptionally holy individual\u2014in this case, G\u00e9rard Raymond\u2014the trials and tribulations of earthly existence can somehow be made bearable.\u00a0 We have here the beginning of the cult of saints.\u00a0 How can a woman caught in such desperate straits come to believe that a young seminarian who had died only four years earlier could act as a divine intercessor on her behalf, and help bring her husband back to her safe and sound?\u00a0 This woman believes in the power of conversion; it is, perhaps, the one thing that sustains her.\u00a0 Her lonely, heart-wrenching letter may well be addressed to an earthly man, a priest, but her prayer\u2014for that is what it is\u2014goes well beyond this world to another man.\u00a0 This man, who was young, strong, pure and selfless, can empathize with the depth of her pain and suffering, for he too suffered much.\u00a0 She wants to put her longing in the strength of such a man who, rather than ignoring her, will give her the life to which she believes she is properly entitled.\u00a0 Equally important, she is seeking protection\u2014a sort of heavenly peer influence\u2014for her own son.\u00a0 She wants the saintly G\u00e9rard Raymond to act as a protective older sibling to this young son, who is far more at risk of straying from the path of goodness because of his age and immaturity.<\/span><\/p>\r\n \u00a0<\/p>\r\n The Young Qu\u00e9bec City \u2018Martyr\u2019<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\r\n \u00a0<\/p>\r\n G\u00e9rard Raymond is not an official saint of the Catholic Church.\u00a0 He has not even reached the first stage of being declared Venerable.[2]<\/a>\u00a0 Yet for over seventy years, there has been a small but persistent cult to him.\u00a0 Every year, on July 5th<\/sup>, the anniversary of his death, a mass is held in Qu\u00e9bec City to ask for the grace of his beatification.[3]<\/a>\u00a0 Pilgrims occasionally still visit the family plot where he is buried.\u00a0 Who was this elusive young man, known almost exclusively through the pages of a journal which was discovered and published after his death, and which still sells, albeit in rather small numbers?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 G\u00e9rard Raymond was born on 20 August 1912 into a typically modest urban Qu\u00e9bec City family, the fourth of eight children.\u00a0 His father, Camille Raymond, was a tramway conductor, while his mother, Jos\u00e9phine Poitras, as with most Catholic women of that era, maintained the household.\u00a0 Very little is known of his brief life, except for those events recounted in his journal\u2014written during his last four years\u2014and which quite naturally reflect his own selective priorities and interests.\u00a0 In 1924, at the age of twelve, he entered the Petit <\/em>S\u00e9minaire de Qu\u00e9bec<\/em> as a day student, where he remained until he was forced to enter hospital in January 1932.\u00a0 Diagnosed with tuberculosis, he died on 5 July 1932, at the age of nineteen.\u00a0 From the seminary archives, we know that he was a bright and diligent student, often finishing first or second in his class.\u00a0 From his journal, we also know that it was his intention to enter the Order of Friars Minor upon completion of his studies.\u00a0 In particular, he wanted to become a Franciscan missionary to China, and he would often express a burning desire and willingness to die as a martyr for the faith.\u00a0 Most of the other details of his short and uneventful life come from the journal, but also from a popular hagiographic text published anonymously in 1932, a few months after his death, with a particularly suggestive title: Une \u00e2me d\u2019\u00e9lite: G\u00e9rard Raymond (1912-1932)<\/em>.\u00a0 Its author was undoubtedly Oscar Genest, priest and spiritual director of the students at the seminary.[4]<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 This text is important for a number of reasons.\u00a0 First, the seminary must have distributed it\u2014together with holy cards of G\u00e9rard Raymond\u2014rather widely to religious congregations, parishes and schools throughout North America, for its archives contain many letters of acknowledgement and thanks.\u00a0 These documents provide the researcher with a uniquely rich look at the particular worldviews of these recipients\u2014clerical for the most part\u2014for they are loaded with luxuriant and nuanced commentaries on the religious meaning and import of the life of the young G\u00e9rard Raymond.[5]<\/a>\u00a0 Second, Une \u00e2me d\u2019\u00e9lite<\/em> is very much a classic hagiographic text, in the sense that it does two things: it makes a case for the sanctity of G\u00e9rard Raymond, and it proposes his life as a compelling model for other Catholic youth.\u00a0 In so doing, it offers much by way of insight into how the French Canadian Catholic clerical culture of this distinctive era understood and defined not only adolescent spiritually, but lay sanctity more generally.\u00a0 Third, and perhaps most significant, the book essentially consists of a prolonged spiritual commentary on G\u00e9rard Raymond\u2019s own journal.\u00a0 Because it was written by the spiritual director of the seminary, a person directly responsible for the welfare of the souls of the young students, it has much to say about how this clerical authority chose to \u201cconstruct\u201d G\u00e9rard Raymond as a potential saint, by drawing and emphasizing particular elements from his life, and how these might be relevant, in turn, to the lives of other seminary students, both present and future.\u00a0 In this regard, the choice of title is quite revealing: it bespeaks an overriding concern with Christian perfection, particularly for young males, as a task best suited to strong, exceptional or elite types, as might be the case for an athlete or a soldier.\u00a0 There is another sense in which the term \u201celite\u201d can be understood here.\u00a0 Because they ran a coll\u00e8ge classique<\/em>[6]<\/a> the priests of the seminary were indeed forming a French Canadian elite of future lawyers, doctors, notaries, politicians or clergy.\u00a0 For the priests, this elite would naturally need to possess the sorts of qualities and virtues that G\u00e9rard Raymond so well embodied if its members were to occupy the rightful place that belonged to them in society and in the French Canadian Church.<\/span><\/p>\r\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 G\u00e9rard Raymond\u2019s reputation for sanctity rests almost exclusively on his journal.\u00a0 The document is exceptional in that it provides the reader with an intimate look at the spiritual development of a young French Canadian Catholic man of the early part of the twentieth century.\u00a0 Its first entry is dated 23 December 1927; its last, 2 January 1932.\u00a0 Published by the S\u00e9minaire de Qu\u00e9bec<\/em>, it is reminiscent of the remarkably popular auto-biographical spiritual text by St. Th\u00e9r\u00e8se de Lisieux, Histoire d\u2019une \u00e2me<\/em>.\u00a0 In fact, G\u00e9rard Raymond may have modelled his entries on those of Th\u00e9r\u00e8se.\u00a0 In his journal, he writes about how much he was impressed with her writings and spiritual insights, and he often invokes her as one of his special patrons.\u00a0 It is also important to note that the seminary itself edited and published the journal, and that selective parts of the original manuscript (mostly detailed summaries of sermons heard and recorded by G\u00e9rard) were removed from it.[7]<\/a>\u00a0 This parallels the process at Lisieux, where the Carmelite convent edited and arranged for the first publication of Histoire d\u2019une \u00e2me<\/em>, thereby almost single-handedly being responsible for the spread of the cult of the young Th\u00e9r\u00e8se Martin, who would arguably become the most influential Catholic saint of the twentieth century.[8]<\/a><\/span><\/p>\r\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Raymond Lemieux, a scholar of Qu\u00e9bec Catholicism, characterizes the major focus of the spirituality of G\u00e9rard Raymond, as reflected through the pages of his journal, as: \u201c\u2026a sharp awareness \u2013 and sharpened by the institution to which he submits himself \u2013 of the distance between daily life and the ideal, an awareness of work always needing to be redone<\/span> to bridge the chasm, the challenge and necessity of perseverance.\u201d[9]<\/a>\u00a0 He further delineates the young seminarian\u2019s personality as comprising the threefold aspects of the model student, the pious adolescent and the elite soul.[10]<\/a>\u00a0 When reading the journal, one is struck by a number of recurring themes: the overriding concern with perfection in all aspects of life, and the consequent guilt which inevitably comes from not attaining it; the emphasis on penance and suffering, whether self-imposed or not, and how this imitates Christ and the tribulations of the martyrs; and the overly punctilious observance of Catholic rituals and devotions.\u00a0 The motto of the young student was: \u201cAimer, Souffrir, Aimer\u201d (To love, to suffer, to love).\u00a0 The picture of G\u00e9rard Raymond that emerges from his journal is that of an exceptionally religious yet determined youth, insecure and often guilt-ridden, who wanted to be perfect in all things, whether his studies, his faith and devotional observances, his home life or his relationships with peers.\u00a0 In psychological terms, he might perhaps be viewed today as a bit of an obsessive-compulsive.<\/span><\/p>\r\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Above all else, however, stood G\u00e9rard Raymond\u2019s burning desire to be a saint and a martyr: \u201c\u2026as of today, I give myself to you, do with me as you wish, I know that it will be good.\u00a0 Make of me a saint, and if possible a martyr.\u201d[11]<\/a>\u00a0 Such an idealistic Catholic ambition for sanctity and martyrdom\u2014much more common in that era than was often admitted\u2014served as a powerful template.\u00a0 In reflecting homogenous Tridentine ideals of Catholic perfection and perfectibility, it provided individuals, particularly youth, with the necessary inspiration, impetus and models for the forging of their fragile identities.\u00a0 In striving for sanctity and martyrdom, G\u00e9rard Raymond thereby became both himself and a good Catholic, for the two were seen as indivisible.\u00a0 The ideal of the martyr-saint bridged a chasm between the world and the Church, between this earth and the heavenly promise, between ordinary humans and stronger, more elite ones.\u00a0 What more could any typical adolescent look or ask for?<\/span><\/p>\r\n \u00a0<\/p>\r\n The Ideal of Heroic, Sanctified Masculinity<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\r\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\r\n Since \u2018\u2018Une \u00e2me d\u2019\u00e9lite\u2019\u2019<\/em> and his journal were both officially published by the priests of the Qu\u00e9bec City seminary, G\u00e9rard Raymond\u2019s exemplary youthful sanctity could be said to be a clerical construction.\u00a0 This does not detract from the merits of the youngster\u2019s life.\u00a0 Rather, it points to a common process in saint-making: that it is often those with particular vested interests\u2014sometimes very legitimate ones\u2014who are the real advocates of sainthood for a given individual.\u00a0 The seminary priests were the ones who wrote about G\u00e9rard Raymond; who edited and distributed his writings; who had images and holy cards of him printed; who composed prayers in his honour and organized novenas for his canonization; who kept alive his memory; and who proposed him as a model for other French Canadian Catholic youth.\u00a0 They created the saintly and ascetic G\u00e9rard Raymond.\u00a0 Without them, it is fairly certain that he would have remained unknown.\u00a0 Why, therefore, did they do it, and what sort of young man were they interested in fashioning?<\/span><\/p>\r\n <\/p>\r\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The dedication page of the young seminarian\u2019s journal, which would have been composed by a cleric from the seminary, provides a revealing perspective in this regard.\u00a0 It reads: \u201cTo our dear [French] Canadian youth, particularly those regrouped in specialized movements, we dedicate these pages of Catholic Action from the journal [diary] of G\u00e9rard Raymond, proud, pure, joyful and conquering adolescent.\u201d[12]<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Through this dedication, the seminary priests were clearly proposing their own student as a viable model for all youth involved with Catholic groups and organizations under the care of the Church.\u00a0 There was therefore an overarching purpose to their publication of the journal, which was to mold and channel the energies and talents of Catholic youth in the service of the Church\u2019s broader religious and secular interests.\u00a0 It is important to underscore that the pages of the text are referred to as an example of \u201cCatholic Action,\u201d in the sense of that early twentieth century movement, particularly prominent in Qu\u00e9bec, which sought to transform the everyday secular world through the application of Catholic social ideals and teachings by committed members of the Church\u2019s faithful.[13]<\/a>\u00a0 Interestingly enough, while G\u00e9rard Raymond did participate in the activities of a number of Catholic youth groups, mostly those of a devotional nature\u2014and while the pages of his journal do make occasional reference to them\u2014they do not constitute a major focus of his intimate writings.\u00a0 The priests here seem to be recuperating G\u00e9rard Raymond\u2019s ideal of personal asceticism as an example of Catholic Action, a subtle but significant shift which seeks to extend even further, and ever more intimately, the hold of Roman Catholic institutional hegemony.<\/span><\/p>\r\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 It is without a doubt the description of G\u00e9rard Raymond as a \u201cproud, pure, joyful and conquering adolescent\u201d that most clearly spells out what the youth ideally represented for his clerical guardians.\u00a0 These are the Christian virtues and qualities that they looked for, and which they actively promoted, in the Catholic boys under their care.\u00a0 This was how they understood and delineated Catholic masculinity: someone who was confident and secure in both his maleness and his faith; who was pure and therefore self-controlled; who was able to offer the world, despite his virtuous ascetic life, the look of a happy, contented and cheerful individual; and who finally was grandiosely heroic in having overcome his natural and sinful bodily urges, and thus willingly resigned himself to an early and painful death.\u00a0 This was the Catholic version of the Protestant ideal of \u201cthe muscular Christian,\u201d the soldier-boy\/man of Christ and the athlete for Jesus.[14]<\/a>\u00a0 In proposing the saintly G\u00e9rard Raymond as an exemplar for Catholic adolescent boys, the clergy of the seminary were idealizing and sanctifying this masculine standard.\u00a0 The expression \u201cconquering adolescent\u201d may strike one as being odd or slightly out of place.\u00a0 It does, however, reflect, at an individual level, the broader cultural sense, at that time, of an imperial mandate, particularly as this might apply to the British colonial context and experience, and from which Canada, including Qu\u00e9bec, was certainly not exempt.[15]<\/a>\u00a0 Catholic masculinity was always a masculinity subservient to, and in service of, the Church, an institution defined primarily as the ultimate protector of French Canadian identity and survivance<\/em>.\u00a0 As opposed to Protestantism, which may have placed much more of an emphasis upon perfection for the sake of the individual\u2019s own salvation or, more broadly, in the interests of some global colonialist political goal, French Canadian Catholicism understood masculine vigour in an almost ecclesiastical context, i.e., it was concerned with forming strong Catholic citizens whose loyalty was to Rome rather than to a specifically national authority.\u00a0 This, of course, reflects quite well the overarching clerical ideology of ultramontanism which dominated Qu\u00e9bec society so powerfully at this time.\u00a0 \u201cImperial\u201d for the Catholic Church in Qu\u00e9bec was therefore not necessarily the British Empire, but rather the imperial and autocratic nature of the Church itself, whose structures were understood as divinely-sanctioned.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 In Une \u00e2me d\u2019\u00e9lite<\/em>, another resounding plea is made: \u201cYoung people, have the courage to follow him.\u00a0 You owe it to God, you owe it to the Church, you owe it to your country.\u201d[16]<\/a>\u00a0 G\u00e9rard Raymond thus leads the way as the perfect man of faith, the perfect Catholic and the perfect citizen.\u00a0 A perfect citizen is one who exhibits, above all, a visible and total sense of discipline and subservience in his personal and religious life.\u00a0 One should understand \u201ccountry\u201d here as referring to French Canada, in that this concept or idea was the locus of identity for French-speaking Catholics.\u00a0 This re-inscribes the traditional nationalist motif of language and faith as the bulwarks against assimilation, and as the legitimate guarantors of collective survival.[17]<\/a>\u00a0 Further in the same text, one reads: \u201cOur young people, impacted more and more by a diversity of influences, have an even more pressing need to contemplate and imitate models which will teach them how to resist evil passions, how to hitch themselves forever, to the true and the good.\u201d[18]<\/a>\u00a0 The long-suffering Qu\u00e9bec City youngster is now offered, by his clerical mentors, as a model of resistance to the allures of the world and a saintly guide in the timeless struggle between good and evil, between truth and falsehood, between the safety of the Church and the nefarious pull of the world at large.<\/span><\/p>\r\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Such a sanctified ideal of heroic virtue is quite obviously contingent upon the existence of a \u201cdangerous\u201d and suspect environment outside the secure borders of the Catholic worldview.\u00a0 In this regard, it is particularly illuminating to consider the written reactions of a selection of priests and members of religious congregations to having received complimentary copies either of Une \u00e2me d\u2019\u00e9lite<\/em> or G\u00e9rard Raymond\u2019s journal from Father Oscar Genest.[19]<\/a>\u00a0 On 14 March 1937, a certain F. Manuel of the P\u00e8res du Tr\u00e8s Saint-Sacrement<\/em> in Montr\u00e9al innocently writes: \u201c\u2026my heart holds a special attraction for this young man caught up with the ideal of sanctity.\u00a0 In these times of revolting paganism<\/strong> and of exaggerated materialism<\/strong>, it is good to encounter souls which understand the sublime realities of the afterlife and who live in accordance with their beliefs.\u201d[20]<\/a>\u00a0 On 9 January 1933, the superior general of the Soeurs de l\u2019Assomption de la Sainte-Vierge<\/em> expresses her feelings as follows: \u201cIt is indeed a good action to teach youth to elevate themselves to the heights of sacrifice and Christian mortification while everything compels them to remain in the more comfortable domains of easy and selfish pleasure<\/strong> \u2013 when they are not encouraged to descend even further.\u201d[21]<\/a>\u00a0 From Coll\u00e8ge de Sainte-Anne<\/em> in Sainte-Anne de la Pocati\u00e8re, an anonymous writer, presumably a priest, states the following in a letter dated 27 March 1936: \u201cPaganism, egotism, sensualism<\/strong>: here are the three causes of the present crisis.\u00a0 Is it not true that Gerard Raymond made whatever laid in his power to apply the break to this affliction towards himself?\u00a0 Charity, modesty, mortification, visits to the Holy Sacrament: all these things composed his program.\u00a0 His day-book attests all that.\u201d\u00a0 It is interesting that this writer does not specify what is meant by \u201cpresent crisis\u201d or \u201caffliction.\u201d\u00a0 Presumably, they referred to a sense of overall degeneracy about the secular world.\u00a0 Finally, from something intriguingly called The Boy Savior Movement, headed by a certain W.H. Walsh, a New York City Jesuit, come these words dated 28 January 1937: \u201cIn these dreadful days<\/strong>, when the efforts of Satan<\/strong> to draw our youth from God are powerfully aided by the impure worldly atmosphere<\/strong> around them, it is lovely and encouraging to have so recent an example of the power of God\u2019s grace in one just like themselves and with the same advantages, to put before them.\u201d\u00a0 Through these selections, one gets a clear sense of the multi-vocality of G\u00e9rard Raymond as a symbol of disciplined, chaste, pious and saintly youth.<\/span><\/p>\r\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 What these various representatives of Catholic clerical authority have in common is a shared sense of the dangers inherent to the temporal world, especially when it comes to the perceived innocence of youth.\u00a0 This sharp sense of moral panic was not typically Catholic; rather, it was reflective of a far broader nineteenth- and twentieth-century North American cultural concern with the hazards and pitfalls of uncontrolled adolescence, just as adolescence itself was beginning to emerge as a clearly identifiable and identifying age category.[22]<\/a>\u00a0 The wild, untamed bodies of adolescents, particularly those of boys, were perceived as frontiers to be charted and brought under the control of such civilizing forces as religion.\u00a0 This era, for example, saw the birth and rapid growth of the scouting movement.\u00a0 Catholicism too was anxious about subjugating its teenage bodies, hence G\u00e9rard Raymond\u2019s emergence as the perfectly disciplined and self-controlled boy.\u00a0 His was a body on which was written\u2014in fact, carved through a variety of ascetic practices\u2014the wishes and designs of an insecure and apprehensive Church, a Church always anxious to ensure the unquestioned loyalty and continued devotion of its members.\u00a0 Here again, though there may have been many similarities between the Protestant and Catholic views of the dangers associated with adolescence, particularly the widespread perception of the increased \u201cfeminization\u201d of young men because of easy or undisciplined living, the distinctiveness of the Catholic perspective\u2014or at least its special salience\u2014may arise more from a sense, if not a sharp and sustained expectation, of the higher morality of \u201cthe Catholic way.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 One strategy in the Catholic pedagogical arsenal for dealing with adolescent boys was that of proposing models of chaste and youthful sanctity for them to emulate, in the hope that these saints would inspire and motivate the boys.\u00a0 The Church offered several such exemplars, drawn mostly from religious orders: Aloysius Gonzaga, a Jesuit novice, was the most popular, as was Dominic Savio, a Salesian student.\u00a0 Both were closely tied to issues of bodily chastity.\u00a0 In fact, more often than not, these boy saints came across as highly ambivalent sexual icons.[23]<\/a>\u00a0 G\u00e9rard Raymond himself was regularly compared to some of these saints, most notably one of his personal favourites, Stanislaus Kostka, a Polish Jesuit novice and a relatively popular saint in French Canada at that time.\u00a0 The unspoken hope was that G\u00e9rard would eventually join this illustrious saintly company.<\/span><\/p>\r\n \u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\r\n That Ever Elusive (but, Oh, So Important) Purity<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\r\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\r\n The most important virtue hoped and sought for in Catholic youth was that of purity or bodily integrity, also often called chastity.\u00a0 Though it was seldom referred to in explicit terms, the biggest fear by far, particularly in the case of boys, was that they might engage in the hidden practice of masturbation, also known as the sin of self-abuse.\u00a0 The nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries had a very different view of this particular sexual act.\u00a0 Seen as a disease by many in the medical profession, masturbation was long understood as contributing to a variety of physical, psychological, moral and even social ills.[24]<\/a>\u00a0 <\/sup>Above all, it was believed literally to sap the manhood out of boys, and engaging excessively in it might even feminize them and make them less manly, hence an almost obsessive concern with its full eradication.\u00a0 Masturbation was understood as an actual threat to masculinity because it denoted lack of proper manly self-control, an inability to dominate one\u2019s urges, and hence eventually an incapacity to assume one\u2019s proper social role as a dominant male.\u00a0 Of course, the threat of masturbation\u2014also called the solitary sin in the confessional literature\u2014raised the spectre of homoerotic acts, for it was believed that boys, especially younger ones, could be easily subjected to peer pressure, thereby being \u201cforced\u201d by older youngsters to engage in same-sex activities.<\/span><\/p>\r\n <\/p>\r\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Interestingly enough, G\u00e9rard Raymond does not really emerge in writings by or about him as a potential \u201csaint of purity,\u201d even though the virtue is often ascribed to him, but almost as an afterthought, as if it were something expected.\u00a0 The assumption seems to be that, because of his self-imposed mortifications, he would be naturally pure.\u00a0 There are a few scattered references in his journal to his struggles with purity, but this is never spelled out in any explicit terms.\u00a0 One can assume that the reference is to so-called impure thoughts, which he counteracts by such ascetic practices as lowering his eyes (\u201cmodesty of the eyes\u201d), sleeping on his back or, strangely enough, never crossing his legs (perhaps because this might be seen as a particularly feminine gesture).\u00a0 In the classic religious mode of this time, he understands purity as a perennial struggle against his own sinful body, and as something which is considered essential to his calling as a future priest.\u00a0 With the agreement of his confessor, he will actually take a personal vow of chastity, renewable monthly, at the age of seventeen.\u00a0 The published journal, regrettably, does not tell us how successful he might have been at maintaining it.[25]<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 In the dedicatory pages of his journal, G\u00e9rard Raymond is called pur<\/em> by the priests, but this is one in a series of four Catholic adolescent qualities.\u00a0 In the journal\u2019s forward, the virtue of purity is elaborated upon in the following words: \u201cPure<\/strong>, of an angelic purity, and entrusting the purity of his heart to the power of the Host, to the maternal protection of Mary, Queen of Apostles, and to the care of a director of conscience; (\u2026)\u201d[26]<\/a>\u00a0 Here, purity is understood as an ethereal, angelic quality, something watched over by Mary, the very symbol of a virginal life.\u00a0 The role of clerical authority in also safeguarding this virtue is emphasized in the person of the director of conscience.\u00a0 Rather unusually, Une \u00e2me d\u2019\u00e9lite<\/em> does not dwell on G\u00e9rard\u2019s purity, an omission which can perhaps be explained by the fact that some other desirable Christian virtues are highlighted, such as self-mortification, humility and charity.\u00a0 An indirect reference to it is found in a brief passage about G\u00e9rard\u2019s plans for his summer vacation, which he always circumscribed by a variety of fairly intense spiritual practices: \u201cAnd even his vacation days were subjected to a severe discipline.\u00a0 For him, piety does not take a break, far from it, during this most dangerous of times.\u201d[27]<\/a>\u00a0 Summer vacation was often seen in Catholic schools as an especially risky time for the practice of Christian virtue, primarily because of the fact that children were often on their own, away from the daily supervision of nuns, teaching brothers or priests.\u00a0 To counteract this, many parishes would actually set up special in-house camps during the summer months.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 It is, once again, the various testimonials received in response to the reading of biographical material about G\u00e9rard Raymond that are most interesting because of the ways in which they interpret or frame the virtues exhibited by the young seminarian.\u00a0 Using the traditional image of the lily as a symbol for purity, the authors\u2014priests and nuns for the most part\u2014write eloquently about the importance of this virtue in a young Christian soul.\u00a0 This is a sampling: from a priest of the Fathers of the Blessed Sacrament, writing from Chicago on 3 March1937: \u201cI have read these colourful pages, where one of the beautiful souls of our century is revealed.\u00a0 A flower who is one of ours, a lily from your rich gardens, a lily on fire;\u201d from Les Soeurs adoratrices du Pr\u00e9cieux Sang<\/em>, writing on 4 November 1937: \u201cBeautiful lily whose white assemblage of petals enclosed the virtue of an angel, his odour was pleasing to the divine Gardener and soon enough He transported him to the heavenly gardens;\u201d from a Franciscan priest, writing from Japan on 21 March 1937: \u201cVirtue and youth, it has been said, are two of the most beautiful flowers of humanity.\u00a0 When virtue shines on the brow of a young man, it is the most enticing spectacle that the earth offers. (\u2026) [he has] enough purity to keep chaste innocent souls and to help re-bloom faded lilies;\u201d and finally, from Father Walsh of The Boy Savior Movement in New York City, writing on 30 May 1935: \u201cIt is examples like G\u00e9rard Raymond that we need today to give courage to our young people in the imitation of the purity and obedience of their model Jesus.\u201d[28]<\/a>\u00a0 <\/sup><\/span><\/p>\r\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Several themes cut across these selections.\u00a0 First, and most obviously, the image of the lily, coupled with colourful gardening references, is omnipresent.\u00a0 In these letters, the flower is also associated with such things as angels, heavenly perfumes and fire.\u00a0 In the Catholic iconography of saints, including that of Mary, the white lily is always used to indicate the purity of the body, and more specifically virginity.\u00a0 Second, purity and beauty are combined.\u00a0 A pure young man is called the most beautiful thing in the world.\u00a0 Youth and virtue are described as one of humanity\u2019s loveliest flowers.\u00a0 Angelic references also underscore beauty.\u00a0 Third, this purity is conceived as exemplary and, even more importantly, as powerful.\u00a0 It can impart courage, and it can even make fading lilies bloom again.\u00a0 G\u00e9rard Raymond has so much purity that its excess can keep other, less holy, souls safe!\u00a0 He was so pure that Jesus himself decided to uproot him prematurely and transplant him to the heavenly garden.\u00a0 Purity acts here as a sort of talisman, safeguarding not only the chaste individual himself, but also all those who may invoke him.\u00a0 These are all ideas, motifs and images commonly found in Roman Catholic hagiographic texts.\u00a0 Saintly individuals are believed to exhibit special graces and powers.\u00a0 Their chasteness and other virtues make of them the elect, and they are considered especially strong intercessors and advocates in the economy of salvation.\u00a0 It was the undiminished hope and belief of the seminary priests that their pious and chaste student would eventually be seen as having joined this heavenly elite.\u00a0 Such an understanding of the power of Christian chastity served to underscore and reaffirm Catholic manliness.\u00a0 It was believed to make good Catholic men out of undisciplined Catholic boys.\u00a0 In a way, it was a mirror image of celibate clerical chastity.\u00a0 If the chaste priest was the<\/span> Catholic man par excellence<\/em>, then other Catholic men needed to be equally pure in their lives, even if they were not necessarily celibate.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Robert A. Orsi, historian of American Catholic culture, has argued that, prior to Vatican II, the bodies of Catholic children or young people were sites of \u201ccorporalization of the sacred,\u201d means by which what was holy could be made really real, not only for the youngsters themselves, but more significantly for Catholic adults.[29]<\/a>\u00a0 He writes:<\/span><\/p>\r\n Children signal the vulnerability and contingency of a particular religious world and of religion itself, and in exchanges between adults and children about sacred matters the religious world is in play. [\u2026] Children\u2019s bodies, rationalities, imaginations, and desires have all been privileged media for giving substance to religious meaning, for making the sacred present and material, not only for<\/em> children but through <\/em>them too, for adults in relation to them.[30]<\/a>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n The ways in which the chaste body of G\u00e9rard Raymond was described and adulated by these Catholic adults, and the words and images that were used to enshrine it, speak far more significantly about their own notions of holiness or sanctity than they necessarily do about those of the young seminarian himself, though he had certainly internalized them.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 In this way, G\u00e9rard paradoxically embodied angelic manliness.\u00a0 His was a masculinity circumscribed by the chaste projections of celibate men and women, hence the apparently exceptional quality of his virtue.\u00a0 If a young man in the prime of his age could succeed in controlling his malleable body in such a heroic way, how much worthier and meaningful, therefore, might the sexual disciplines of Catholic adults, especially men, be?\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n \u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\r\n Conclusion, or How to Die Like a Saint and Become One<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\r\n \u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\r\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 G\u00e9rard Raymond\u2019s last journal entry, dated 2 January 1932, reads in part: \u201cDo with me, good Jesus, everything that you wish.\u00a0 Make me suffer, if that pleases you, [for] I am lazy in obtaining merit otherwise.\u00a0 Already, Jesus, I accept absolutely everything\u2026I unite everything with your sufferings.\u201d[31]<\/a>\u00a0 Une \u00e2me d\u2019\u00e9lite<\/em>, in commenting on his death, describes the moment in the following words: \u201cHis white brow laid back on the pillows, with blood on his lips, he gave the impression of a young martyr of the first centuries of the Church, as an eyewitness stated.\u00a0 His calm and quiet death was the echo of his life.\u201d[32]<\/a>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n The sanctification of G\u00e9rard Raymond had already begun, and it happened in two ways: by the hand of the sick and dying seminarian himself, who took care, over several years, to describe in writing his exceptional spiritual journey; and by his clerical guardians, who framed his death in the language and imagery of the most authoritative of all claims to Christian sanctity, that of martyrdom.\u00a0 A direct filial line is drawn from twentieth century French Canada all the way back to the first centuries of the Christian era.\u00a0 This Roman Church of the New World can have its martyrs too.\u00a0 This young and beautiful (for that too is important) contemporary martyr embodies the classically romantic ideal of the earlier martyrs: proud, fearless, silent in suffering and, above all, willing to die like Jesus himself.\u00a0 The very words of the martyr proclaim it: \u201c\u2026I unite everything with your sufferings.\u201d\u00a0 What greater proof need there be?<\/span><\/p>\r\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The saintly fate of G\u00e9rard Raymond has yet to be sealed in any official way, yet he continues to be a focus of devotion.\u00a0 No doubt he represents a certain type of French Canadian Catholicism once triumphant, but now pass\u00e9.\u00a0 For a contemporary reader, his journal may seem a tad quaint, perhaps frightening and slightly suspect because of his persistent insistence on the daily rituals of self-abnegation.\u00a0 His values seem incredibly old-fashioned, if not downright strange.\u00a0 Yet he is not all that exotic or different from many an adolescent today struggling with their emerging sense of self.\u00a0 He was very much a child of his times.\u00a0 The Catholic Church, in its institutional and cultural strength, gave him the context; he quite naturally grafted his identity and his personality onto it.\u00a0 The question of his \u201cofficial\u201d sanctity may or may not one day be resolved, but his true importance lies elsewhere.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The making of young Catholic saints always serves a Church-driven agenda.\u00a0 In the case of G\u00e9rard Raymond, even though his time may have come and gone, we can see the ways in which the clerical authorities of the Qu\u00e9bec seminary, as well as others in their networks, framed and constructed his life so that he came to represent the very best of what young Catholic men should be about.\u00a0 Theirs was a pedagogical strategy.\u00a0 They were forming Catholic faithful, but equally, if not more significantly, they were molding future men: men of privilege no doubt, but also men who stood alone in a fundamentally hostile world.\u00a0 Men who were humble, loving, strong, controlled, courageous, proud, pure and principled.\u00a0 Men like their very own angelic student, G\u00e9rard Raymond, the once and future saint.<\/span><\/p>\r\n \u00a0<\/p>\r\n By Donald L. Boisvert, Department of Religion<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\r\n Concordia University, Montr\u00e9al<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\r\n \u00a0<\/p>\r\n PRAYER FOR THE BEATIFICATION OF GERARD RAYMOND<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\r\n \u00a0<\/p>\r\n Lord Jesus who has given many graces to Your faithful servant Gerard Raymond, it is with confidence that we have recourse to his intercession. Make that in consideration of his merits, we obtain the favor (…) we ask You and we all submit to the will of your Father. Then we will have the joy to bear witness to his credit with You in Heaven and thus contribute to his glorification on earth. Amen.<\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\r\n Imprimatur<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\r\n Paul Nicole V.G.<\/span><\/p>\r\n Qu\u00e9bec, 16 ao\u00fbt 1982<\/span><\/p>\r\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/leandresz.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/lepetitseminairedequebec_1945-500x396.jpg?resize=300%2C200\" "\\"lepetitseminairedequebec_1945\\"")
<\/a>Le lendemain, le 12 septembre, il reprend avec autant d’ardeur: \u00ab\u00a0Depuis quelques temps, je sens continuellement un malaise dans le corps, du c\u00f4t\u00e9 droit. Appendicite? Je ne sais pas. Mais ce mal est bien tenace. Comme Vous voudrez, \u00f4 mon Dieu, faites de moi ce qu’Il vous plaira. J’accepte avec joie la souffrance que Vous m’envoyez, aggravez-la si Vous le voulez ou faites-la dispara\u00eetre. Je me livre \u00e0 Vous tout entier, jusqu’au bout. Vous savez que certains de mes confr\u00e8res ne font pas leur Retraite, ceux-l\u00e0 surtout je Vous recommande si souvent. Je Vous en prie, \u00f4 J\u00e9sus, sauvez-les. A l’occasion de cette Retraite, attire-les \u00e0 Vous. S’ils Vous fuient, ils ne savent pas ce qu’ils font, sauvez-les donc malgr\u00e9 eux. Vous \u00eates si puissant. S’il Vous faut quelqu’un pour souffrir \u00e0 leur place, pour expier, me voici, je suis pr\u00eat jusqu’au bout. (\u2026) O J\u00e9sus, j’ose \u00e0 peine formuler ce d\u00e9sir, recevez-le s’il Vous plait comme un t\u00e9moignage de mon amour. Si Vous voulez, je suis pr\u00eat. Je Vous offre ma vie, je Vous sacrifie ma vie avec mes espoirs de Sacerdoce et de martyrs pour qu’en \u00e9change, de tous les \u00e9l\u00e8ves qui suivent avec moi cette Retraite, aucun, aucun ne soit perdu \u00e9ternellement. Pour que tous Vous aiment et travaillent \u00e0 l’extension de Votre R\u00e8gne sur cette terre\u00a0\u00bb. Et encore le 14, jour de la cl\u00f4ture de la Retraite, il supplie encore pour la conversion de certains confr\u00e8res: \u00ab\u00a0Vous n’avez pas pour aujourd’hui accept\u00e9 mon offrande, ce sera donc pour une autre fois. Mais, \u00f4 J\u00e9sus, si vraiment quelques confr\u00e8res n’\u00e9tait pas encore avec Vous, je Vous priez, acceptez mon offrande; ou bien, accordez-moi de souffrir toute ma vie, et recevez mes souffrances unies aux V\u00f4tres pour cette m\u00eame fin\u00a0\u00bb.<\/span><\/p>\r\n<\/a><\/a>The French Canadian Church at this time was very much a missionary church, and it sent missionaries to all corners of the earth (per capita, the highest percentage of any Catholic country in the world).\u00a0 In that sense, the Church can be said to have had \u201cdreams of conquest,\u201d of wanting to spread the faith well beyond its geographical borders.\u00a0 G\u00e9rard Raymond also wanted to be a missionary; his sense of vocation and his ascetic agenda of self-perfection were modelled on those of the martyred Jesuit missionaries to New France.\u00a0 The conquest of the young self through acts of abnegation, always in service to a higher Catholic institutional ideal, therefore mirrored and extended the Church\u2019s own expansionist designs. The two, in fact, were co-extensive.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n