Fr Jacques Hamel, murdered yesterday by Islamist terrorists at the age of 85, has been called the first priest-martyr of Western Europe in the 21st century.
But before his death, he insisted that holiness lay in ordinary life.
On All Saints' Day last year, he wrote in the parish newsletter: “Do not think holiness is not for us.” He told parishioners that holiness did not necessarily mean “doing extraordinary things”, but could mean living a simple existence like that of the Martin family.
Noting that Louis and Zélie Martin, the parents of St Thérèse of Lisieux, had recently been beatified, Fr Hamel said: “Their life was simple, like many of our families. But their whole existence was oriented towards the Kingdom of Heaven. Their only desire was ‘to serve God first’.
