GARESCHÉ, EDWARD FRANCIS

Author and mission-aid organizer; b. St. Louis, Missouri, Dec. 27, 1876; d. Framingham, Mass., Oct. 2,1960. He was a member of one of the old Catholic families of St. Louis, was a graduate of St. Louis University (1896), and received a law degree from Washington University in St. Louis (1898). After practicing law for two years, he entered the Society of Jesus at Florissant, Missouri, on Sept. 7, 1900 and was ordained on June 27, 1912. Garesché's first assignment was a summer's work on the staff of the Jesuit weekly America. He was then assigned in 1913 to intensify the promotion of the Sodality of Our Lady on a national scale. In 1914 he founded the Sodality publication The Queen's Work, and before he left the promotion work in 1922 the magazine had a circulation of 160,000. Daniel A. lord, SJ, succeeded him as promoter; The Queen's Work ceased publication in June 1964.

After leaving the Sodality, Garesché became associated with the Catholic Hospital Association. In 1927 he was engaged by the Catholic Medical Mission Board, of which he was director from 1929 until his death. In 1928 he founded the International Catholic Guild of Nurses, with himself as permanent spiritual director, a position that caused considerable controversy in 1936. In 1935 Garesché founded a congregation of mission sisters, the Daughters of Mary Health of the Sick, and after much opposition he founded a companion community of brothers, sons of mary health of the sick, at Framingham, Mass., in 1952. After this foundation he spent half of his time with the brothers and half in New York City. Although he remained a member of the Jesuit Missouri province, many found his status anomalous, since he went his own way most of the time. A bibliography of his works lists 37 books of prose, six books of poetry, and eight booklets. He also published millions of leaflets during World War II and numerous articles in Catholic periodicals. His literary efforts were more devotional than learned; his true title to fame rests on the tons of medical supplies he was able to send to missions all over the world.

[e. r. vollmar]