At Hasselt near Maastricht in Belgium, Blessed Valentine Paquay, priest of the Order of Friars Minor, who in his preaching, in the ministry of reconciliation, and in devotion to the rosary of Mary gave a wonderful example of Christian charity, attaining the heights from the least things in a spirit of humility.
Lifespan: 1828–1905
Beatified: 9 November 2003 by Pope John Paul II
Memoria liturgica: 1 January
God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple. (1 Cor 3:17)
Louis Paquay was born at Tongres in Belgium on 17 November 1828, the fifth of eleven children of Henry and Anna Neven, a couple of irreproachable integrity and deep religious faith.
Having completed his primary schooling, he entered the college of Tongres run by the Regular Canons of Saint Augustine to continue his literary studies; in 1845 he was admitted to the minor seminary of St-Trond for courses in rhetoric and philosophy.
After the untimely death of his father in 1847, having obtained his mother’s consent, he entered the Order of Friars Minor of the Belgian province, and on 3 October 1849 began his novitiate at the friary of Thielt.
On 4 October of the following year he made his religious profession in the hands of Father Ugolino Demont, guardian of the friary, and immediately afterwards went to Beckheim to follow the theological course, which he completed at the friary of St-Trond. Ordained to the priesthood at Liège on 10 June 1854, he was assigned by his superiors to Hasselt, where he remained for the rest of his life, serving also in the offices of vicar and guardian. In 1890 and again in 1899 he was elected provincial definitor.
“Through the guidance of Saint John Berchmans, his beloved master,” writes Agostino Gemelli, “Father Valentine is grafted into Franciscan spirituality, teaching us the virtue of every moment, the cultivation of the smallest things, in the spirit of the most candid and immediate humility” (cf. I. Beaufays, Fr. Valentine Paquay, the ‘Saintly Father’ of Hasselt, Milan, Vita e Pensiero, 1947, Preface).
Father Valentine’s apostolic work was untiring. He preached almost continuously and, owing to his simple and persuasive manner of speaking, was greatly esteemed, especially among ordinary people and in religious communities. He was above all assiduous at the confessional, emulating the holy Curé of Ars, to whom he was sometimes compared. On numerous occasions he gave proof of the gift of penetrating in an extraordinary way the consciences of his penitents, who came to him even from distant places.
He had a singular devotion to the Most Holy Eucharist and, through his fifty years of apostolate in favour of frequent Communion, was an active forerunner of the famous decree of Pope Saint Pius X.
Devoted to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, whose sublime perfections he never ceased to contemplate and proclaim, he spread that devotion especially among the sisters of the Fraternity of the Secular Franciscan Order at Hasselt, which he directed for twenty-six years. He kept the memory of the Passion of Jesus ever vivid by making a daily practice of the Way of the Cross. Most devoted to the Virgin, he had venerated her from his youth in the parish church of Tongres under the title Causa nostræ lætitiæ, and at the shrine of Hasselt under the title Virga Jesse; but, as a Franciscan, he preferred above all Marian titles that of the Immaculate Conception, and wished to celebrate — notwithstanding his infirmity — the fiftieth anniversary of the definition of the dogma with great rejoicing, an anniversary that coincided with his priestly jubilee.
He died at Hasselt on 1 January 1905 at the age of seventy-seven.
The heroic character of his virtues was recognized by Pope Paul VI with a decree of 4 May 1970.