Three south Louisiana natives considered for sainthood

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops gathered in Baltimore Nov. 17 to advance the cause of canonization of three people, two from Acadiana.
The two Acadiana natives, Charlene Marie Richard and Auguste “Nonco” Robert Pelafigue, are now closer to possible sainthood after a vote by the bishops. The third person is Joseph Hutton of Hawaii.
Bishop Douglas Deshotel, Diocese of Lafayette, addressed the bishops to tell the story of Richard and Pelafigue, who, each in their own way, inspired others to devote themselves to deepening their faith.
Charlene Richard and Nonco Pelafigue now join Lt. Fr. Verbis Lafleur as three candidates from the Diocese of Lafayette on concurrent paths to canonization.
Fr. Lafleur’s cause was similarly ratified by the U.S. Bishops earlier this year during their 2021 Spring Plenary Assembly.
In January, Bishop J. Douglas Deshotel of the Diocese of Lafayette officially opened the “Cause for Canoniza-tion” of Charlene Richard and Auguste “Nonco” Pelafigue.
Charlene Richard, known as “The Little Cajun Saint,” was an Acadia Parish middle school student in Richard. In 1959, Charlene, who was 12 at the time, was diagnosed with cancer and later died at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Lafayette within two weeks of her diagnosis.
During those days under the spiritual guidance of Fr. Joseph Brennan, Charlene offered her prayers and suffer-ing for the benefit of others.
She is buried at St. Edward Catholic Church Cemetery in Richard, not far from where she resided with her large family. Her gravesite has garnered international attention with thousands visiting to pray each year for her inter-cession of their illnesses and for those of relatives and friends from around the world.
Nonco Pelafigue was a longtime resident of Arnaudville, a teacher, a producer of children’s plays, and door to door lay evangelist who devoted his life to his religion. At the age of 89, he died in 1977.
Pelafigue, who as an infant in 1889, moved with his family from France to Arnaudville, was devoted to the Apostleship of Prayer League and Sacred Heart of Jesus. A humble teacher, he spent years living in a small cabin in Arnaudville, walking the roads around that community distributing leaflets about the Sacred Heart.
Bishop Deshotel noted that Wednesday was a joyful moment to hear a unanimous voice vote supporting the pursuit of both causes for beatifying and canonizing both local parishioners of the Lafayette Diocese. Many of the Bishops who had never heard of Richard and Pelafigue were inspired by the two’s holy lives.
The vote of the bishops represents the second step of the three-step journey towards canonization.
Now that parishioners of the Diocese of Lafayette and the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops have both voiced support of the three Causes, the process now moves to the Congregation for the Causes of Saints at the Vatican in Rome which will document, in detail the lives of the three candidates and investigate any mira-cles attributed to their intercession.