What our 2nd American-born martyr, to be beatified Saturday, is still saying to youth today

Author: Scott Rouse Published on: December 6, 2019 Published in: Mary & the Saints

Brother James Miller, a native of Wisconsin, will be beatified December 7 in Huehuetenango, Guatemala, the place where he was martyred on February 13, 1982, at the age of 37.

Pope Francis has sent Cardinal Jose Luis Lacuna, bishop of David, Panama, to preside over the ceremony.

The cardinal spoke with Vatican News about Brother Miller, who was a member of the De La Salle Christian Brothers.

“A good Catholic educator is like a seed that sooner or later will bear fruit,” the cardinal said. “He teaches youth to reason with criteria they’ve made their own, to make decisions that are consistent with their faith, as this brother-martyr did, remaining close to the boys up to the end.”

James Miller grew up on a farm in Wisconsin, a “very active man,” as described by the postulator of his cause, Brother Rodolfo Meoli. He met the Christian Brothers in 1955 when he began school at Steven Point. There he discovered his vocation and began his novitiate in 1962.

He quickly won over his students and everyone else as well: a robust man with an ever present smile, ready to do whatever task was at hand, including sweeping the floors or cleaning the toilets.

He was sent to Central America in 1969, to Nicaragua. But after a certain time, given the political situation there, he had to leave for a year and returned to the family farm. Yet he dreamed of returning to his flock in Central America.

It was in 1981 that he was assigned to the Colegio Indígena de Huehuetenango.