Florida Physician Spreads Divine Mercy for the Living and the Dead

Author: Scott Rouse Published on: December 3, 2020 Published in: Divine Mercy

Trent Beattie

As a young physician in the late 1980s and early 1990s, Dr. Bryan Thatcher worked day and night to improve the bodily health of his patients. In fact, the first three years that Thatcher practiced medicine came and went without a single vacation. Because of his diligent efforts, he became very wealthy but was struggling interiorly.

Thatcher went through the motions of church attendance, but the job stress took its toll on his marriage, and he became estranged from his wife, Susan. The two most important things in life — faith and family — were severely strained.

However, things would take a turn for the better after a trip to Mexico City in 1991. That marked the beginning of Thatcher’s reversion back to the Catholic faith. Now, Thatcher, a father of 10 — seven on earth — is the founder and director of Eucharistic Apostles of the Divine Mercy, a lay apostolate under the Marians of the Immaculate Conception, based in Stockbridge, Massachusetts.

Thatcher recently spoke of his work to spread the message of Divine Mercy to everyone — especially those most in need of it, which includes the Holy Souls, who are powerless to help themselves.

What were your early days in medicine like?

In the late ’80s early ’90s, I was a very successful gastroenterologist [an expert in stomach and intestinal health]. I did many good things for many people and made a lot of money along the way. The problem was, it all began and ended with me; there was not a spiritual component to what I did. I had numerous patients with serious conditions die while I was working on them in the ICU, and I never would have thought about praying for them or reflecting on what was happening in the spiritual realm to them. I just wasn’t “there” mentally.

I was struggling interiorly and realized there had to be more to life than what I was doing. In fact, I was dying inside. But God is a God of second chances, and, reflecting back, Our Lady was walking with me. In 1991, when I was in Mexico City for a medical conference, I took the afternoon off and visited the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe.