> Eugene
de Mazenod,
Our Founder
> Oblate Historical Dictionary
Blessed Joseph Gerard OMI
Joseph Gerard was born in France in 1831. At the age of twenty he entered the Congregation of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate. Sent to South Africa and ordained a priest in Pietermaritzburg, he worked among the Zulus people. I 1862 he went as a pioneering missionary to Lesotho, and spend the rest of his long life there sharing the message of the Gospel. His active love for the Basutho people, his care for the sick and the weak, and his repute as a man of prayer have earn him an enduring place in the history and memory of that nation. A flourishing local Church bears witness to his life and work. He died in the fullness of years on May 29th 1914, and was declared Blessed on September 15th 1988 by Pope John Paul II.
Blessed Jozef Cebula OMI
Józef Cebula was born March 23, 1902 at Malnia in Poland. He was the eldest of three children (two brothers and one sister).. He entered the Oblate seminary at Krotoszyn in 1920, where he finished his secondary studies. A year later, on August 14, 1921 he began his novitiate at Markowice. He was then sent to Liege (Belgium) for philosophy, but was called back to Poland a year later and finished his philosophical and theological studies at Lubliniec. He was ordained to the priesthood on June 5, 1927. On August 1, 1937 he was appointed Superior and novice master in Markowice. After being denounced for administering the sacraments to the sick he was arrested by the SS on April 2, 1941 and sent to the camp at Inowroclaw. He was deported to the concentration camp at Mauthausen on April 7 where he was killed on May 9, 1941 about 9 o'clock in the morning.
