Jim Bradshaw: Vatican examines story of 'little Cajun saint'

Recently, the Vatican formally accepted the case for sainthood for Charlene Richard, just a week before the 65th anniversary of her death on Aug. 11, 1959. For thousands of people a formal declaration isn’t necessary. They know that Charlene, is certainly “the little Cajun saint.”
The movement for her canonization has taken years to reach this point and will likely drag on for years to come, The Diocese of Lafayette closed its investigation in January and delivered a thousand or more stories and interviews about her life to the authorities in Rome.
 Those documents tell a story known across the globe. Miraculous cures have been attributed to her and thousands of people flock each year to her grave in the little town of Richard, midway between Eunice and Church Point.
Charlene’s family thought she only had a persistent case of the flu when they took her to the hospital. Instead, it was leukemia, in a very advanced stage.           
The Rev. Joseph Brennan was a newly ordained priest when he was called to Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Lafayette to tell the 12-year-old girl that she was going to die. He said in a little memoir self -published in 2009 that he had no preparation for such a thing, but that she made it possible.
“I can remember that as I made my way up to the fourth floor, I asked the Lord, ‘Please tell me how to tell a girl of twelve that she has only two weeks to live.’ When I entered the room and gave her my name, I can still hear her saying, ‘My name is Charlene.’
“The Lord answered my prayer as I heard myself saying, ‘Charlene, you are a sick little girl.’ She said, ‘I know that, Father.’ Then I said, ‘In a couple of weeks a beautiful lady is going to come and take you home.’ Looking at me with those brown Cajun eyes, she said, ‘When that lady comes, I will tell her that Father Brennan said hello.’”           
Sister Theresita Crowley, who accompanied Father Brennan on his rounds remembered that Charlene “suffered a great deal.”
“It’s the nature of the disease,” Sister Theresita said. “The pain is awful, but I remember her as a cheerful patient. She never complained.” Charlene was especially fearful of painful bone marrow tests that involved inserting a long needle into the breast bone, but she bore them with “remarkable courage,” the sister remembered.
When Father Brennan saw how much Charlene was suffering, he talked to her about the concept of offering her pain and suffering as a prayer for the benefit of others. After that he visited her every day and talked about a particular person he felt might benefit from her prayers. Charlene would then offer that day’s pain and discomfort as a prayer in the name of that person.
Father Brennan prayed with her and gave her last rites and marveled at the way that she handled her illness. He thought she was a very special little girl, and so now do a lot of other people.
“I thought that night that no one would believe the story of the journey of faith that happened in Room 411,” Father Brennan wrote. “I was wrong about that. Ten thousand people now visit her grave site each year.”
Father Brennan published accounts by people who believe that Charlene has miraculously cured loved ones of cancer and other diseases, but not all of the intercessions attributed to her have dealt with physical issues. Through her intercession, “a lot of people got jobs; their marriages were saved, they had things put back together in their lives. Those are the kind of intercessions that don’t show up on x-rays,” he says.
Is she a saint? “My purpose is not to declare her a saint,” Father Brennan said. “That’s for others to do. But I will say that she was a special little girl who has remained for more than 50 years in my heart and in my life.”
Her cause will now be studied by theologians who make up what is known as the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints. They will study her life and decide whether to recommend canonization to the pope, who then will decide whether Charlene is a “little Cajun saint” in the eyes of the Church as well as in the hearts of those who pray to her.
You can contact Jim Bradshaw at jimbradshaw4321@gmail.com or P.O. Box 1121, Washington LA 70589.