Valentinus Paquay

Valentinus Paquay was born Johannes Ludovicus Paquay (also recorded as Jan Louis Paquay) on 17 November 1828 in Tongeren, in the Limburg region of what became independent Belgium two years later. He was the fifth of eleven children of Hendrik Paquay and Anna Neven. The household was modest and devoutly Catholic. After his father’s death during his youth he continued his schooling in Tongeren and discerned a vocation to the priesthood. Instead of the diocesan seminary he chose the Franciscans, entering the novitiate of the Order of Friars Minor in 1849 and receiving the religious name Valentinus.

He completed novitiate, profession, and theological studies in the Belgian Franciscan province and was ordained a priest in 1854. After brief assignments in other houses of the order he was sent to the Franciscan convent in Hasselt, which remained his home for nearly the rest of his life. He was elected guardian of that community on several occasions. In Hasselt he became known as a preacher of missions and retreats, but still more as a confessor. For decades he spent long hours each day in the confessional. People of every class came to him from across Belgium and from neighboring countries; those who knew him spoke of his patience, his insight into conscience, and his insistence on trust in divine mercy.

His own piety centered on the Eucharist, the Sacrament of Penance, devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and veneration of the Blessed Virgin Mary. He observed the Franciscan rule with austerity and was noted for personal penance and simplicity of life. Already during his lifetime the people of Hasselt and the surrounding region called him “the holy Father.” He continued this ministry into old age despite declining health.

He died in the Hasselt convent on 1 January 1905. Large crowds attended his funeral, and a popular reputation for holiness persisted. The cause of beatification was introduced in the twentieth century; he was later declared Venerable and was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 2003. He has not been canonized. His tomb in the Franciscan church in Hasselt remains a place of local veneration, and he is commemorated especially by the Franciscans and the faithful of Limburg.