Jacques Hamel facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Servant of God Jacques Hamel |
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| Church | Saint-Étienne-du-Rouvray |
| Archdiocese | Archdiocese of Rouen |
| Orders | |
| Ordination | 30 June 1958 |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 30 November 1930 Darnétal, Seine-Maritime, France |
| Died | 26 July 2016 (aged 85) Saint-Étienne-du-Rouvray, France |
| Buried | Basilica of Notre-Dame de Bonsecours 49°25′18″N 1°07′23″E / 49.4215304°N 1.1229655°E |
| Nationality | French |
| Denomination | Roman Catholicism |
Jacques Hamel (French pronunciation: [ʒak amɛl]; 30 November 1930 – 26 July 2016) was a French Catholic priest who served in Saint-Étienne-du-Rouvray.
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Early life
Hamel was born on 30 November 1930 in Darnétal, France. At the age of six he became a choirboy in St. Paul's Church in Rouen and at 14 he entered the minor seminary. He served in the military for 18 months in Algeria. He did not wish to be an officer as he did not want to issue orders to other men to kill.
Ministry
Hamel was ordained as a priest on 30 June 1958. He served as an assistant priest at the St. Antoine church in Le Petit-Quevilly from 1958, an assistant priest at the Notre-Dame de Lourdes church in Sotteville-lès-Rouen from 1967, a parish priest in Saint-Pierre-lès-Elbeuf from 1975, and a parish priest in Cléon from 1988. He joined the church in Saint-Étienne-du-Rouvray in 2000. He officially retired in 2005 at the age of 75, but continued serving as the parish's assistant priest.
With local imam Mohammed Karabila, the president of Normandy's regional council of Muslims, Hamel worked since early 2015 on an interfaith committee. After Hamel's death, Karabila described him as his friend with whom he had discussed religion and as also someone who gave his life for others.
Death and legacy
On 26 July 2016, Hamel was murdered during the 2016 Normandy church attack by two Muslim men pledging allegiance to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant while Hamel celebrated Mass in his church.
Commemorations and funeral
A Mass was held in his memory at Notre Dame de Paris on 27 July 2016. It was celebrated by the archbishop of Paris, André Vingt-Trois, and attended by president François Hollande, prime minister Manuel Valls and ministers Jean-Marc Ayrault, Bernard Cazeneuve, Emmanuel Macron and Najat Vallaud-Belkacem, as well as former presidents Nicolas Sarkozy and Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, the Archbishop of Rouen, Dominique Lebrun, and the Apostolic Nuncio to France, Luigi Ventura.
The Funeral Mass was held at Rouen Cathedral on 2 August 2016, drawing a crowd of thousands which included senior clerics, the French interior minister Bernard Cazeneuve and former prime minister Laurent Fabius. Pope Francis instructed Lebrun to place images of Hamel in all the local churches.
In August 2016, the Italian arm of Aid to the Church in Need announced it would cover the cost of training 1,000 new priests in countries like Nigeria, Cuba, Zambia, the Democratic Republic of Congo and India in response to Hamel's murder. On August 27 of that same year, Br. Alexis Bugnolo and A. J. Baalman founded Ordo Miitaris Inc., to defend persecuted Christians in memory of Father Jacques Hamel.
His legacy was also celebrated by French singer-songwriter Vianney Bureau in his song "L'homme et l'âme".
Canonization cause
The circumstances of his death have led him to be called a martyr by Christians, including Pope Francis, non-Christians, and the press. Calls to declare him a saint started soon after his death. The canonization cause was officially opened at diocesan level in April 2017, after Pope Francis had waived the otherwise mandatory five-year waiting period for the opening of such causes.
Archbishop Lebrun announced on 1 February 2019 that the diocesan inquiry for the beatification process would be solemnly closed on 9 March 2019.
See also
In Spanish: Jacques Hamel para niños
- List of terrorist incidents in July 2016
- Paulos Faraj Rahho
- Frans van der Lugt
- Andrea Santoro
- Luigi Padovese
