26 Facts About John Berchmans

John Berchmans, SJ was a Belgian Jesuit scholastic and is revered as a saint in the Catholic Church.

In 1615, the Jesuits opened a college at Mechelen, Belgium and Berchmans was one of the first to enroll.

John Berchmans is the patron saint of altar servers, Jesuit scholastics, and students.

John Berchmans was the oldest of five children and at baptism was named John in honor of John the Baptist.

John Berchmans grew up in an atmosphere of political turmoil caused by a religious war between the Catholic and Protestant parts of the Low Countries.

John Berchmans would pass several hours each day by her bedside.

John Berchmans studied at the Gymnasium at Diest and worked as a servant in the household of Canon John Froymont at Mechelen in order to continue his studies.

John Berchmans made pilgrimages to the Marian shrine of Scherpenheuvel, some 30 miles east of Brussels, but only few miles from Diest.

In 1615, the Jesuits opened a college at Mechelen and John Berchmans was one of the first to enroll.

When John Berchmans wrote his parents that he wished to join the Society of Jesus, his father hurried to Mechelen to dissuade him and sent him to the Franciscan convent in Mechelen.

At the convent, a friar who was related to John Berchmans attempted to change his mind.

Finally as a last resort, John Berchmans's father told him that he would end all financial support if he continued with his plan.

John Berchmans was affable, kind, and endowed with an outgoing personality that endeared him to others.

John Berchmans requested that after ordination as a priest he could become a chaplain in the army, hoping to be martyred on the battlefield.

John Berchmans set out on foot, with his belongings on his back, and on arrival was admitted to the Roman College to begin two years of study.

John Berchmans entered his third-year class in philosophy in the year 1621.

John Berchmans opened the discussion with great clarity and profoundness, but after returning to his own quarters, was seized with the Roman fever.

John Berchmans's lungs became inflamed and his strength diminished rapidly.

John Berchmans's remains were eventually entombed in Rome's Sant'Ignazio Church.

John Berchmans took as his spiritual model his fellow Jesuit Aloysius Gonzaga and was influenced by the example of the English Jesuit martyrs.

John Berchmans had a special devotion to Mary, mother of Jesus, and to him is owed the Little Rosary of the Immaculate Conception.

John Berchmans was declared Blessed in 1865, and canonized in 1888.

The Belgium Post Authority issued a philatelic stamp in 1965 featuring John Berchmans pictured alongside his parental home in Diest.

The St John Berchmans Sanctuary Society is an organization for altar servers that continues to have chapters at many parishes.

The chapel became known as St John Berchmans and was the Belgian national parish until 1947, and was Flemish-speaking.

On 16 June 1986, Pope John Paul II established the Diocese of Shreveport and St John Berchmans Church became the Cathedral.