Bl. Raphaël Rafiringa

Raphaël Rafiringa was born in 1856 in Antananarivo, Madagascar, and became a Catholic at thirteen. He joined the De La Salle Brothers, a teaching order of religious brothers who are not priests.

When French missionaries were expelled from Madagascar in 1883, he and a few lay leaders kept the Catholic Church alive there for three years: they taught, led prayer and protected church property. He was also a writer and poet in Malagasy and French and was elected to the national academy. In later years he was falsely accused of conspiracy and exiled. He died in Fianarantsoa in 1919 and was beatified in 2009.

Raphaël Rafiringa was beatified in 2009.

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