William Gagnon

After his profession, Brother William Gagnon was entrusted with important responsibilities within the Canadian province of the Hospitaller Order of Saint John of God. In 1937, he was appointed director of the aspirantate (the apostolic school) in Montreal, where he displayed great qualities as an educator for the youth. In 1939, he became third councilor of the General Delegation of Canada and local bursar. On March 30, 1941, he was appointed General Delegate of Canada and Prior of the Notre-Dame-de-la-Merci convent-hospital in Montreal. Upon the official erection of the Canadian Province in 1946, he was elected the first Provincial Superior. In 1948, he chose to resign from his position as provincial to return to being a simple prior at the Saint-Augustin hospital, near Quebec City. Throughout these years of administrative management, he spent a large part of his time at the bedside of the sick, caring for them personally with immense charity.

However, Brother William had carried a missionary dream within him since childhood. In 1950, he volunteered to found the Order's first mission in Indochina. Appointed prior of this new foundation on December 3, 1950, he embarked for Vietnam and arrived at the Bùi-Chu mission (in the north of the country, about 120 miles south of Hanoi) on January 18, 1952, accompanied by two Canadian confreres. The brothers took over the management of the Sacred Heart Hospital of Bùi-Chu and its dispensary. In a context of civil war and extreme poverty, they tirelessly cared for the wounded and thousands of refugees, particularly children suffering from malnutrition. In 1952, a bomb destroyed the roof of the hospital, but miraculously, no one was injured.

In 1954, following the Geneva Accords and the partition of Vietnam, Brother William and his confreres were forced to flee to the South with the waves of refugees. They settled in Bien Hoa, near Saigon. It was there that he founded the Notre-Dame-du-Bon-Conseil hospital in 1956. Brother William assumed all tasks there with heroic humility: he was at once prior, nurse, mason (making the bricks himself with sand and water), gardener, master of novices for young Vietnamese vocations, and social worker. He also managed to recover medical equipment from the American army to equip the facility. For twenty years, he dedicated all his strength to the establishment of the Order in Vietnam and to the relief of the victims of the war.

Exhausted by decades of incessant labor, deprivation, and total dedication, Brother William Gagnon passed away from a heart attack on February 28, 1972, at the government hospital in Saigon, in the arms of one of his confreres. According to local custom, his body was laid out on a bed of tea leaves. His remains were watched over by a military platoon in recognition of the exceptional services he had rendered to the population. He was buried in the garden of the Order's house in Bien Hoa, at the foot of a statue of the Holy Family that he particularly loved.

From the moment of his death, his tomb became a place of constant pilgrimage for the Vietnamese faithful, novices, and the sick who came to seek graces through his intercession. In 1967, the government of South Vietnam, through Prime Minister Nguyen Cao Ky, had awarded him the Medal of Honor for Merit.

The cause for the canonization of Brother William Gagnon was officially launched in 1999. The competent forum for the instruction of the cause was transferred from the Diocese of Xuân Lôc (Vietnam) to the Archdiocese of Montreal (Canada) on March 24, 1999. The nihil obstat decree was granted by the Congregation for the Causes of Saints on January 15, 2000, conferring upon him the title of Servant of God.

The diocesan inquiry took place in Montreal from March 27 to May 23, 2000. After the validation of the inquiry and the drafting of the Positio, it was submitted to the theological consultants on April 10, 2014, and then to the ordinary session of cardinals and bishops on November 3, 2015, with a positive result.

On December 14, 2015, Pope Francis received in a private audience Cardinal Angelo Amato, Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, and authorized the promulgation of the decree recognizing the heroic virtues of Brother William Gagnon, thereby declaring him Venerable.

To pave the way for his beatification, the official recognition of a miracle is required. A diocesan inquiry into an alleged healing attributed to his intercession was opened on April 14, 2004, and closed on October 12, 2004, with its validity decreed by Rome on April 27, 2007. This file is currently under examination at the Vatican.

The spirituality of Brother William Gagnon is deeply rooted in the charism of hospitality of Saint John of God. His work with the sick and refugees stemmed from a life of intense prayer and absolute trust in Divine Providence. He professed a fervent devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Virgin Mary. For him, healing suffering bodies was the means to lead souls to Jesus, provided one knew how to recognize Christ himself in every person, without distinction of origin or political affiliation.

He left his confreres this testimony on the beauty of their vocation: "Our vocation is wonderful: to care for Christ in his suffering members and to lead them to Jesus through our life of dedication and charity. But to do this, it is necessary to have a great faith that makes us see at every moment in all our brothers, whoever they may be, Our Lord himself. This ardent faith will be obtained through prayer."

Fleeing any pursuit of human glory, he often reminded them: "Honors are but a flash in the pan. Only the little good we have done remains, if we have managed to take advantage of the grace that the good God has granted us every moment of our life."