GARICOÏTS, MICHAEL, ST.

Founder of the bÉtharram fathers; b. Ibarre (Basses-Pyrénées), France, April 15, 1797; d. Bétharram (Basses-Pyrénées), May 14, 1863. He came of a poor peasant family, which reared him in profoundly Christian surroundings. To follow his priestly vocation he worked as a domestic while a student. After ordination (1823) he renewed a parish while a curate. As professor (from 1825) and superior (1831–33) of the seminary in Bétharram he reestablished discipline and piety. After the transfer of the seminary to Bayonne he remained at Bétharram, where he founded (1832) and directed under enormous difficulties a congregation of missioners and teachers. By his foundations of schools and colleges he was a pioneer in Christian education, and through his missioners and his own activity he helped re-Christianize the region. An adversary of jansenism, he favored frequent communion, devotion to the Sacred Heart and to the Blessed Virgin Mary. An exemplary priest, firm, obedient to the point of heroism, zealous, he was a peerless and supernaturally enlightened director of souls—called the Seer of Bétharram. He was beatified May 10, 1923; canonized July 6, 1947.

Feast: May 14.

Bibliography: Life of Blessed Michael Garicoïts, ed. bÉtharram fathers, tr. c. otis–cox (London 1935). d. buzy, Saint Michel Garicoïts, le saint de Bétharram (Lourdes 1967). p. duvignau, Un Maître spirituel du XIX ^e siècle: Saint Michel Garicoïts (Paris 1963); La Doctrine spirituelle de saint Michel Garicoïts (Paris 1949). d. innamorati, The Life of St. Michael Garicoïts (Leigh, U.K. 1997).

[p. duvignau]