John Berchmans was born March 13, 1599, in the city of Diest situated in what is now the Belgian province of Flemish Brabant. The son of a shoemaker, his parents were John Charles and Elizabeth Berchmans. He was the oldest of five children and at baptism, was named John in honor of St. John the Baptist. He grew up in an atmosphere of political turmoil caused by a religious war between the Catholic and Protestant sections of the Netherlands. When he was age nine, his mother was stricken with a long and serious illness. John would pass several hours each day by her bedside. He studied at the Gymnasium at Diest and worked as a servant in the household of Canon John Froymont at Malines in order to continue his studies. John also made pilgrimages to the sanctuary of Scherpenheuvel, a few miles from Diest In 1615, the Jesuits opened a college at Malines (Mechelen) and John Berchmans was one of the first to enroll. Immediately, when he entered, he enrolled in the Sodality of the Blessed Virgin. When John wrote his parents that he wished to join the Society of Jesus, his father hurried to Mechelin to dissuade him and sent him to the Franciscan convent in Mechelin. At the convent, a friar who was related to John, also attempted to change his mind. Finally as a last resort, Johns father told him that he would cease all financial support if he continued with his plan. Nevertheless, on September 24, 1616, John Berchmans entered the Jesuit novitiate. He was affable, kind, and endowed with an outgoing personality that endeared him to everyone. He requested after ordination to become a chaplain in the army, hoping to be martyred on the battlefield. On September 25, 1618, he made his first vows and went to Antwerp to begin the study of philosophy. After only a few weeks, he set out for Rome, where he was to continue the same study. After journeying three hundred leagues by foot, with his belongings on his back, he arrived at the Roman College to begin two-years of study. He entered his third year class in philosophy in the year 1621. Later, in August 1621, the prefect of studies selected John Berchmans to participate in a discussion of philosophy at the Greek College, which at the time was under the charged to the Dominicans. John opened the discussion with great clarity and profoundness, but after returning to his own quarters, was seized with the Roman fever. His lungs became inflamed and his strength diminished rapidly. He succumbed to dysentery and fever on August 13, 1621, at age twenty-two years and five months. When he died, a large crowd gathered for several days to view his remains before burial in SantIgnazio Church, and to invoke his intercession. That same year, Phillip-Charles, Duke of Aarschot, sent a petition to Pope Gregory XV to gather information with the intent of beatification of John Berchmans.
Posted on: Sun, 16 Mar 2014 14:59:48 +0000
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