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Memorial: 15 August
Profile
Worked as an assistant mason for white colonists in what was then the
Belgian Congo and later known as Zaire or simply the Congo. Convert,
baptized 6 May 1906 at age 18 after receiving instruction from Trappists
missionaries. Rosary in hand, he used any chance to share his faith;
though untrained, many thought of him as a catechist. He left his native
village because there were no fellow Christians.
Worked as a domestic on a Belgian rubber plantation. Many of the Belgian
agents were atheists who hated missionaries due to their fight for native
rights and justice; the agents used the term "mon pere" for anyone
associated with religion. Isidore encountered their hatred when he asked
leave to go home. The agents refused, and he was ordered to stop teaching
fellow workers how to pray: "You'll have the whole village praying and no
one will work!" He was told to discard his scapular, and when he didn't,
he was flogged twice. The second time the agent tore the scapular from
Isidore's neck, had him pinned to the ground, and then beaten with over
100 blows with a whip of elephant hide with nails on the end. He was then
chained to a single spot 24 hours a day.
When an inspector came to the plantation, Isidore was sent to another
village. He managed to hide in the forest, then dragged himself to the
inspector. "I saw a man," wrote the horrified inspector, "come from the
forest with his back torn apart by deep, festering, malodorous wounds,
covered with filth, assaulted by flies. He leaned on two sticks in order
to get near me - he wasn't walking; he was dragging himself". The agent
tried to kill "that animal of mon pere", but the inspector prevented him.
He took Isidore home to heal, but Isidore knew better. "If you see my
mother, or if you go to the judge, or if you meet a priest, tell them that
I am dying because I am a Christian."
Two missionaries who spent several days with him reported that he devoutly
received the last sacraments. The missionaries urged Isidore to forgive
the agent; he assured them that he already had. "I shall pray for him.
When I am in heaven, I shall pray for him very much." After six months of
prayer and suffering, he died, rosary in hand and scapular around his
neck.
Born: c.1887 at northeast Republic of the Congo
Died: martyred 15 August 1909
Beatified: 24 April 1994 by Pope John Paul II
Canonized: pending |
