Bl. Daniel Brottier

Daniel Brottier was born in 1876 at La Ferté-Saint-Cyr, France, and was ordained a priest in 1899. In 1902 he joined the Congregation of the Holy Spirit (the Spiritans) and went as a missionary to Senegal, but poor health twice forced him home.

In France he founded the Souvenir Africain to build the cathedral of Dakar. He served as an army chaplain in the First World War and afterwards founded a national union of veterans.

He became known for his practical help to orphans in the Auteuil district of Paris and founded the Work of Orphan Apprentices. He died in 1936, and John Paul II beatified him in 1984.

Daniel Brottier was beatified in 1984.

Beatification allows public veneration, usually in a particular region or religious family. Canonization extends it to the whole Church.