On , at the request of the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, at the Maison Vicariale de Paris, the Inaugural Session of the supplementary diocesan enquiry into the cause of canonisation of Jacques-Émile SONTAG, Lazarist, Archbishop of was held6 March 2025Ispahan of the Latins, and fellow martyrs: François MIRAZIZ, .Mathurin L’HOTELLIER, Nathanaël DINKHA,
Mgr Michel GUEGUEN, president of this session, introduced the opening session of the supplementary enquiry requested by the Dicastery. He spoke of the formal aspect of this session, but also of its spiritual aspect.
Then, at the request of the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints on 16 May 2024, I asked Mgr Dubois to open an additional enquiry. This was followed by the reading of the decrees of appointments – by Mgr Michel Gueguen – the officers for the aforementioned Inquiry. Afterwards, the Episcopal Delegate – Abbé MOREAU, the Promoter of Justice – Abbé de MORAND, the Notary – Mgr gr PHAN-THANH, MDubois and the Postulator General – took the oath.
In this period of Lent, a privileged time to reflect on our faith and our Christian commitment, let us look at the shining testimony of Jacques-Emile Sontag, Vincentian missionary and Servant of God, born on 16 June 1869 in Dinsheim-sur-Bruche.
From an early age, Jacques-Emile Sontag decided to dedicate his life to missionary service, joining the Congregation of the Mission founded by St. Vincent de Paul. Ordained a priest, he soon demonstrated his organisational skills and extraordinary pastoral sensitivity, becoming superior of the Mission school in Isfahan, Persia, where he dedicated himself with fervour and determination to the education and care of the poorest and most vulnerable.
His life was deeply marked by concrete love and heroic charity, particularly during the dramatic genocide of the Assyrian-Chaldean people in 1915. In that tragic historical context, Jacques-Emile Sontag chose to stand by the thousands of refugeeswho took refuge in the French Mission in search of help and protection. Faced with the immense suffering of some 50,000 fleeing people, he mobilised all his material and spiritual resources, generously distributing the aid received from France and even going so far as to sell his own personal belongings to alleviate the refugees’ suffering.
His radical choice of closeness and solidarity led him to share the fate of the people entrusted to him to the end. Having remained firmly in the mission despite the imminent danger, he was assassinated on 31 July 1918 in front of the church in Ourmiah.
The witness of Jacques-Emile Sontag is extraordinarily relevant today for us members of the Congregation of the Mission and for the whole Vincentian Family. His example reminds us of the authentic heart of our vocation: to serve Christ in the poor with simplicity, humility and apostolic zeal. Sontag shows us that Vincentian charity is not an abstract concept, but a courageous choice that takes concrete form in the total gift of self, without reserve, even in the darkest moments of history.
At a time of Lent when we are called to conversion and a deepening of our mission, the life of Blessed Jacques-Emile Sontag invites us to rediscover the true meaning of our missionary service: to always be close to those who suffer, to be ready to give everything out of love and trust in divine Providence.
Today, as we prepare ourselves spiritually for Easter, inspired by Jacques-Emile Sontag, we renew our commitment as Vincentian missionaries, aware that only a life given with love and courage is capable of bearing full witness to the beauty and power of the Gospel.
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F. Serhiy Pavlish, C.M
Postulator General
