Blessed James Miller was born in 1944 near Steven’s Point, Wisconsin. He was the oldest of five siblings of a farming family of which he was always proud. He loved farm work, but he started thinking about the priesthood as a high school student. The Christian Brothers who taught at the Catholic High School he was attending encouraged him to consider being a teaching brother. In 1959, at the age of 15, he joined the juniorate of the LaSalle Christian Brothers in Glencoe, Missouri. A juniorate is essentially a high school of boys thinking of a joining the religious congregation. The juniorate was also a self-sufficient farm that the students helped to run. After finishing high school, he entered the novitiate of the LaSalle Christian Brothers and then was sent to the University of Minnesota at Winona to study Spanish. Brother James was not considered the most pious among the young brothers. He had a tendency to be late for prayers and was seldom the last person to leave the chapel. On the other hand, he had a great generosity, simplicity, and friendliness that made him beloved by all. He had a deep faith in God, a sincere willingness to help others, and a hearty laugh. He was a young brother who created union and harmony among the LaSalle Christian Brothers. He loved to talk about farming and recounted stories from his high school days in Missouri. He could drive a tractor with confidence and was very handy with tools. Later on, his students would call him “Brother Fix-It.” After earning a master’s in Spanish, Brother James was assigned to Cretin High School in St. Paul Minnesota where he taught English, Spanish, and religion. He also coached football and took on much of the building maintenance at Cretin High School. He was initially called Brother Leo William, but later returned to his baptismal name when this option was made available. In Central America he was known as Brother Santiago. Brother James told his superiors that he deeply desired to serve the poor in the missions. His superiors made note of this when he was admitted to perpetual vows in 1969. Shortly after his final profession, one of the brothers at the LaSalle Christian Brothers mission in Bluefields, Nicaragua became ill. Brother James was sent to replace him. He took over the sixth-grade classroom in the school and assumed responsibility for the building maintenance. Then he taught in their high school, ran the bookstore, and started a soccer team. He did whatever needed to be done—quietly and without fanfare. After four years in Bluefields he was sent to Puerta Cabeza on the east coast of Nicaragua to be the director of the school. This mission flourished under his leadership. He increased enrollment from 300 to 800. At Puerta Cabeza he built an industrial arts complex, offices, and a science building. He founded a volunteer fire department and trained the firemen himself. He also taught a full class schedule and did the building maintenance. Often, he would be seen sweeping the floors, cleaning the bathrooms, handling plumbing problems, and doing building repairs. The Somoza government was impressed with his work and contracted him to build rural schools. When the Sandinista Revolution toppled with dictatorship of Anastasio Somoza, his superiors feared for him and recalled him to the United States in 1979 because he had collaborated with the previous government to build schools. Brother James was committed to improving the lot of the poor but was decidedly nonpolitical. He obeyed with a heavy heart and taught once again at Cretin High School for two years. In 1981 he got his opportunity to return to the missions. This time he was sent to Guatemala as the subdirector of the LaSalle Christian Brothers mission in Huehuetenango where the brothers worked among the indigenous people who were descendants of the Mayans. These people were increasingly marginalized as their homes and farmlands were taken over by commercial agricultural interests. In 1981, Guatemala was in one of the most violent stages of a decade-long conflict. The government military frequently tried to round up Indian boys, including students, to serve in the army. Each time the brothers heard one of their boys had been picked up by the soldiers at the market or on the streets, they went to the military station and reclaimed them. Sometimes, the brothers had to insist and would not take no for an answer. Brother James was often the one who went to rescue the boys. Aware of the violence, the family and friends of Brother James had tried to dissuade him from taking the assignment in Guatemala. Though he acknowledged their concerns, he accepted the risks. He knew that he could be killed, and on February 13, 1982, while he stood helpless and alone on a ladder fixing the school building, three men shot him at point blank range. Some speculated that his killing was meant as warning to the Christian Brothers to stop interfering with the army’s practice of rounding up Indian boys to serve in the army. Brother James was formally declared a martyr in 2018 and beatified at a Mass in Guatemala City on December 7, 2019. Let me close his story by quoting an excerpt from a letter that he wrote to his sister a month before he was murdered: “I am personally weary of violence, but I continue to feel a strong commitment to the suffering poor of Central America…. I pray to God for the grace and strength to serve Him faithfully by my presence among the poor and oppressed of Guatemala. I place my life in His Providence and place my trust in Him.” Until next week. Fr. John