McNamara's Blog
Born in what is now the Ukraine, he joined the Jesuits in 1872 and was ordained in 1881. For seventeen years he worked in Jesuit colleges until he volunteered to work among the lepers in the Madagascar missions. “I know very well”, he wrote to the Fr General Louis Martin in Rome in 1897, “what leprosy is and what I must expect, but all this does not frighten me, on the contrary, it attracts me.” He devoted all his strength, his talents as an organizer and, above all, his heart to the sick. He lived among them to bear witness to the fact that they were human beings and that they must be saved. An eye witness, Fr A. Niobey, wrote: “His devotion to his lepers was unequalled. He possessed nothing but he gave the little he could dispose of unhestitatingly. His answer to every objection was always: “What you do for the least of my creatures, that you do unto me. We must be like the merchants of this earth: we must always aim at a greater gain.'” He answered the provincial who asked him about working conditions among the sick: “One must be in constant union with God and pray without respite. One must get used little by little to the stench, for here we don’t breathe the scent of flowers but the putrefaction of bodies generated by leprosy”. (Letter, 18 April 1901) Fr Beyzym was a contemplative in action in the style of St Ignatius. He had daily problems and battled against a thousand worries and sufferings, but was above all a man of prayer. Prayer was the source of his strength. Not having much time for quiet prayer, he prayed everywhere all the time. He often repeated that his prayer was not worth much and that he had trouble praying.
(From the Vatican website)
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