Charlene Richard

{{Short description|Cajun Servant of God}} {{good article}} {{Use mdy dates|date=September 2024}} {{Infobox person | name = Charlene Richard | honorific_prefix = Servant of God | image = Charlene-Richard.jpg | image_size = | alt = | caption = | titles = | birth_name = | birth_date = January 13, 1947 | birth_place = Richard, Acadia Parish, Louisiana, U.S. | death_date = August 11, 1959 (aged 12) | death_place = Lafayette, Louisiana, U.S. }} '''Charlene Marie Richard''' (January 13, 1947 – August 11, 1959) was a twelve-year-old Catholic Cajun girl from Richard, Acadia Parish, Louisiana, ({{coord|30.421788|-92.3127187|format=dms|type:city|display=inline}}) in the United States. She has become the focus of a popular belief that she has performed a number of miracles. Local Catholic clergy and diocesan officials permitted, promoted, and participated in the popular veneration of Richard for years prior to her being named a Servant of God.<ref name="Gaudet">{{cite journal | url=http://www.louisianafolklife.org/LT/Articles_Essays/SFcharlene.html | title=Folk Veneration Among the Cajuns | author=Gaudet, Marcia | journal=Southern Folklore | year=1994 | volume=51 | issue=2 | pages=153–66}}</ref><ref name="DA1">{{cite news | title=Mass today honors 'Little Cajun Saint' |newspaper=Daily Advertiser |publisher=Gannett | date=August 7, 2009 | location=Lafayette, LA}}</ref><ref name="Gagliano">{{Cite news |last=Gagliano |first=Katie |url=https://www.theadvocate.com/acadiana/news/article_feda4d6a-34ad-11ea-8c8e-1fa4a79b64a6.html |title=Lafayette diocese launches pathway to sainthood for 2 Acadiana residents; third to follow |date=January 11, 2020 |work=Acadiana Advocate |access-date=March 10, 2020}}</ref>

==Life and final illness==

Charlene was the second-oldest of ten children born to Joseph Elvin and Mary Alice Richard. Adults and children who knew her considered her to be smart but otherwise unremarkable. She was a devout Catholic but no more so than was customary in the local Cajun community.<ref name="Gaudet" /> Richard's mother said, "She liked sports and was always busy with something. She went to church and said her rosary, but she was just a normal little girl."<ref name="DM9">{{cite news | title=Anniversary of girls' death draws those with faith in miracles |newspaper=The Dallas Morning News | date=August 11, 1989 | agency=Associated Press | author=Foster, Mary | location=Dallas, TX | pages=A24}}</ref> In May 1959, after reading a book about St. Therese of Lisieux{{refn|group="Note"|Therese of Lisieux was a young woman from France who suffered and died from a painful, debilitating illness but offered her suffering to God through prayer and became one of the most popular saints of the twentieth century.<ref name="Gaudet" />}} Charlene asked her grandmother whether she, too, could become a saint by praying like St. Therese.<ref name="Gaudet" />

After reporting appearances of a tall woman in black who vanishes, and her teacher recommending that she was not herself, her mother took her to a physician.<ref name="Onebane">{{cite journal | url=http://www.louisianafolklife.org/LT/Articles_Essays/CharleneRichard.html | title=Charlene Richard: Narrative, Transmission, & Function of a Contemporary Saint Legend | author=Onebane, Donna | journal=Louisiana Folklore Miscellany | year=2000 | volume=XV | pages=35–50}}</ref> As a result, only two weeks before her death she was diagnosed with acute lymphatic leukemia and hospitalized at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Lafayette, Louisiana.<ref name="DA1" /><ref>Hospital was then located at {{coord|30.2157|-92.0275|format=dms|type:landmark|display=inline}}, but has since moved. {{cite news | url=http://www.katc.com/news/moving-day-for-lourdes/ | title=Moving day for Lourdes | newspaper=KATC | date=June 25, 2011 | author=Welty, Chris | location=Lafayette, Louisiana | url-status=dead | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140524023149/http://www.katc.com/news/moving-day-for-lourdes/ | archive-date=May 24, 2014 }}</ref> At the request of her family, she was informed by the hospital chaplain, Joseph Brennan, a newly ordained Catholic priest, that she was going to die.<ref name="ST5">{{cite news | title=St. Charlene? It's not official, but many in Cajun area believe |newspaper=The Seattle Times | date=January 20, 1989 | agency=Newhouse | author=Snyder, David | location=Seattle, WA | pages=A4}}</ref> the priest introduced her to the Catholic doctrine of redemptive suffering.<ref>{{Cite news |last1=Rich |first1=Nathaniel |last2=Kranitz |first2=Stacy |date=December 20, 2022 |title=The Miraculous Life and Afterlife of Charlene Richard|work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/20/magazine/charlene-richard-cajun-saint.html |access-date=January 20, 2023 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> Though the illness was painful, she remained cheerful, meekly accepted her fate, and offered up her suffering to God.<ref name="DA1" /> Fr Brennan was deeply impressed by her faith and visited her daily.<ref name="DA1" /> While dying, Charlene prayed for other individuals to be healed or to be converted to Catholicism.<ref name="Gaudet" /><ref name="DA1" /> The Director of Pediatrics at the hospital, Theresita Crowley, a Catholic nun, also witnessed her calm acceptance of suffering and prayers for others. Fr Brennan and Sister Theresita have testified that those for whom Richard prayed recovered from their illnesses or became Catholic.<ref name="Gaudet" /> Charlene died on August 11, 1959, and was buried in Richard, Louisiana.<ref name="DA1" />

Before her death, Fr Brennan and Sister Theresitay began telling people about Charlene Richard, and the girl's family became aware that there was a belief that she was "special".<ref name="Gaudet" /> Fr Floyd J. Calais, a Catholic priest who was at the time the chaplain of Charity Hospital in Lafayette, was a close friend of Fr Brennan. In 1961, Fr Calais began praying to Charlene Richard to be assigned to a parish.<ref name="HC4">{{cite news | title=The miracles of Charlene: Louisiana wants a Cajun saint |newspaper=Houston Chronicle | date=August 12, 1989 | author=Stewart, Richard | location=Houston, TX | pages=A1}}</ref> He was assigned to St. Edwards parish in Richard, Louisiana — Charlene Richard's burial place—that same year. Once there, he discovered the need to raise money to build a new church there. Calais says that he was "invited to retreats and recollections, and began speaking about Charlene, how she achieved grace before she died" and about the need for money to build a new church in the parish. "People started going to her grave," he said, "and began sending checks to build the church. What I thought would take 8–10 years took 2 1/2."<ref name="DA1" />{{refn|group="Note"|Calais also prayed to Charlene Richard for help in obtaining the money for St. Edwards. He was subsequently reassigned and prayed to Charlene for money to build a new church at a second parish and to retire a large debt at a third. Receiving the needed funds in all three cases, he later said, "I call her my little money girl".<ref name="HC4" />}}

As early as the late 1960s and by 1972 at the latest, prayer cards marked "for private devotion only" with a photograph of Charlene Richard, a prayer to her, and a prayer for her beatification were in circulation and xerographic copies were frequently being sent to individuals in need of help. A 1975 series of articles about Richard in the newspaper of the Lafayette diocese spread the cult and were republished in a booklet, ''Charlene, A Saint from Southwest Louisiana'', in 1979. Testimonials by individuals who believed that they had benefited by prayer to Charlene were added and the booklet was again republished in 1988.<ref name="Gaudet" /> A widespread belief formed in the area that Charlene Richard would intercede in heaven for people's prayers to be answered.<ref name="NOTP2">{{cite news | title=Mom of 'Cajun saint' dies: Thousands visit girl's gravesite each year |newspaper=Times Picayune | date=October 18, 2007 | author=Nolan, Bruce | location=New Orleans, LA | pages=1}}</ref>

By 1989, the belief had spread outside the Cajun area.<ref name="ST5" /> Hundreds of people were visiting Richard's grave each week, which had been illuminated so visits could occur in the evening and a box had been provided in which to leave written petitions to Charlene Richard.<ref name="DM9" /><ref name="OS10">{{cite news | title=Faithful trek to bayou to pray at grave of Cajun girl they call a saint |newspaper=Orlando Sentinel | date=August 12, 1989 | agency=Associated Press | location=Orlando, FL | pages=A13}}</ref> On the thirtieth anniversary of her death that year, an outdoor Mass was held there which was attended by four thousand people and which was covered by Louisiana television stations and the Cable News Network, and was reported in newspapers in Louisiana, Dallas, Houston, Miami, Orlando, Albany, and Seattle.<ref name="Gaudet" /><ref name="DM9" /><ref name="ST5" /><ref name="HC4" /><ref name="OS10" /><ref>{{cite news | title=Faithful treat Cajun girl as their saint |newspaper=Miami Herald| date=August 12, 1989 | agency=Associated Press | location=Miami, FL | pages=A12}}</ref><ref>{{cite news | title=Thousands give thanks and say miracles make Cajun girl a saint | work=Orlando Sentinel | date=August 12, 1989 | agency=Associated Press | location=Orlando, FL | pages=A13}}</ref><ref>{{cite news | title=Louisiana prays for a saint many believe in girl's miracles |newspaper=Albany Times Union | date=August 12, 1989 | agency=Associated Press | author=Foster, Mary | location=Albany, NY | pages=D8}}</ref><ref>{{cite news | title=Worshipers press for canonization of Cajun Girl | work=The Seattle Times | date=August 11, 1989 | agency=Associated Press | author=Foster, Mary | location=Seattle, WA | pages=B2}}</ref> The media coverage resulted in knowledge of Richard spreading world-wide, with interest in her expressed in Yugoslavia, Croatia, Australia, and Africa.<ref name="Gaudet" /> Approximately a thousand people attended anniversary Masses there in both 1991 and 1999, with about 400 attending in 2007, and thousands come to her grave each year, including chartered buses from New Orleans.<ref name="NOTP2" /><ref name="NOTP6">{{cite news | title=Nearly 1,000 gather at grave of LA. town's 'unofficial saint' | work=Times Picayune | date=August 12, 1991 | author=Treadway, Joan | location=New Orleans, LA | pages=B1}}</ref><ref>{{cite news | title=Faithful revere 'Cajun saint' 40 years later many credit girl with miracles |newspaper=Times Picayune | date=August 14, 1999 | author=Nolan, Bruce | location=New Orleans, LA | pages=A1}}</ref>

==Position of the Catholic Church== Though no beatification process had begun for Richard, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Lafayette began collecting in 1991 testimonials about reputed help obtained through her.<ref name="NOTP6" /> Unlike the traditional support for beatification, which begins with popular devotion and is only later recognized by the church, support for Richard began outside her immediate home area and was first promoted by the clergy, beginning with Brennan, Crowley, and Calais. The bishop of the Lafayette diocese at the time of her death, Maurice Schexnayder, visited her grave multiple times and referred to her as a saint.<ref name="Gaudet" /> Another bishop of the diocese, Harry Flynn, presided at the thirtieth anniversary Mass in 1989, along with sixteen other priests.<ref name="HC4" /> The diocese also approved the creation of a private organization, the Friends of Charlene, to spread her story.<ref name="NOTP6" />

In January 2020, Bishop J. Douglas Deshotel of the Diocese of Lafayette opened the cause of Richard's beatification during a Saturday Mass at the Immaculata Center in Lafayette, along with Arnaudville teacher and evangelist Auguste Nonco Pelafigue. Following the mass, Richard and Pelafigue were officially named Servant of God.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Neale |first1=Zeringue |title=Charlene Richard a candidate for sainthood |url=https://www.klfy.com/local/charlene-richard-a-candidate-for-sainthood/ |website=KLFY |access-date=January 12, 2020 |date=January 9, 2020 |archive-date=January 11, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200111133740/https://www.klfy.com/local/charlene-richard-a-candidate-for-sainthood/ |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref name="Gagliano" />

On November 17, 2021, the USCCB meeting in Baltimore, Maryland voted to advance the cause of Charlene's beatification and canonization.<ref>{{cite web |last1=PUBLIC AFFAIRS OFFICE |title=U.S. Bishops Affirm Advancement of the Cause of Beatification and Canonization of the Servant of God Charlene Marie Richard |url=https://www.usccb.org/news/2021/us-bishops-affirm-advancement-cause-beatification-and-canonization-servant-god-charlene |website=USCCB |access-date=October 12, 2022}}{{cite web |last1=The Pillar |title=Nonco and Charlene: Future saints at the USCCB?|url=https://www.pillarcatholic.com/p/nonco-and-charlene-future-saints |website=ThePillar |date=November 15, 2021 |access-date=November 18, 2021}}</ref>

==Notes==

==References==

{{DEFAULTSORT:Richard, Charlene}} Category:1947 births Category:1959 deaths Category:Deaths from leukemia in Louisiana Category:Folk saints Category:Christian child saints Category:Cajun people Category:People from St. Mary Parish, Louisiana Category:American Servants of God