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But He Dies Not
J. Verbis Lafleur, Priest and Soldier
Young Verbis Lafleur,
with older brother Shelton, when the family lived in Ville Platte, LA, where
he was born.
- Carola Lillie Hartley
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The crickets were
singing, the mosquitoes were buzzing while the birds chirped noisily in
their nests. It was a warm, humid morning in Opelousas, Louisiana. Spring
mornings are usually like that in Southwest Louisiana, and it was no
different on this day in 1926. The young man in the house on West Grolee
Street awoke, sprang from his bed and hurriedly dressed himself. After
saying a quick goodbye to his mother, he was out the door running to get to
the church before it was too late. When he arrived it was 6:15, and 14 year
old Joseph Verbis Lafleur had carefully calculated that the best time to see
the pastor, Father A. B. Colliard, would be right before the 6:30 AM Mass at
St. Landry Catholic Church. Finally, the black-robed figure came in sight.
“Father,” the boy took one step forward and then stopped. Was he asking too
much? Verbis was a rather shy boy and it took a lot for him to be here. With
a deep breath, he continued in a shaky voice, “Father, I .. I want to become
a priest! Can you help me?”
One of eight children, Joseph Verbis Lafleur was the fourth child of Agatha
Dupre Lafleur and Valentine Lafleur. He was born on January 24, 1912 in
Ville Platte, Louisiana. He spent his early years as a student at Mount
Carmel Academy in the small South Louisiana town. Early in life, to the
delight of his mother, he expressed an interest in the priesthood, and at
the age of seven he became an alter boy.
Joseph Verbis Lafleur
during his time at St. Joseph’s Seminary in St. Benedict, Louisiana
In 1926, the family
fell upon hard times and moved to Opelousas, Louisiana, about 20 miles away,
to be near Verbis’ oldest sister. In Opelousas Verbis attended school, but
his real dream was to enter the seminary. Since very early in his life he
felt a calling to the priesthood. So, on that wonderful spring morning he
told his pastor at St. Landry Church of his desire. Father Colliard did help
the eager boy. Soon arrangements were made for J. Verbis Lafleur to enter
St. Joseph’s Minor Seminary in St Benedict, Louisiana. In 1927 he began his
studies at St. Joseph’s and during 11 years there and at Notre Dame Major
Seminary in New Orleans, never seemed to have any doubt about his vocation.
Before long, everyone
in St. Benedict, Louisiana knew Verbis Lafleur. Being from South Louisiana,
Verbis had a French name and a thick South Louisiana accent. Although he
spoke English, French was his first language. Therefore, the young men of
the seminary affectionately nicknamed him “Frenchy.” Even his facial
features spoke of his Gallic origins. He had a “joie de vivre,” good humor,
and ready wit which surfaced during recreational walks through the piney
woods of St. Benedict. Intelligent and active, “Frenchy” fit in well with
the other teenage seminarians. He was hard to beat in baseball, football and
tennis, and even more formidable when the competition was held on the
scholastic field. Lafleur especially enjoyed French military history. With
dramatic eloquence, Verbis would recite the last words of Marshall Michel
Ney, a favorite French soldier hero: “Come see how a soldier dies in battle,
but he dies not.”
The type of man he was
to be as a priest and as a hero was perhaps indicated by his
Mrs. Agatha Dupre
Lafleur, center, at the dedication of a bronze plaque honoring her son,
Chaplain Joseph Verbis Lafleur, at Notre Dame Seminary in New Orleans,
Louisiana on November 27, 1951.
actions during seminary
days. He participated in school activities outside of class with the same
fervor that he showed in required work, recalled a fellow classmate.
The six years at St.
Benedict’s passed quickly. Graduation day soon came, but that was not Verbis’
goal: it was only the beginning. There would be five years of study and
prayer at Notre Dame Seminary in New Orleans before Verbis Lafleur would be
ordained a priest.
Finally ordination day
did come in 1938. Father Joseph Verbis Lafleur celebrated his first solemn
high mass at St. Landry Catholic Church in Opelousas, LA, his home parish,
on April 5, 1938. He was sent to St. Mary Magdalene Catholic Church in
Abbeville, LA as assistant pastor soon after. He was in Abbeville when he
joined the Army Air Corps in 1941. This was nearly a half-year before the
United States became involved in World War II.
“I hope they send me to
the farthest away places,” he said to his pastor. And to his mother he said
he was volunteering for the service because the other men, those being
drafted, “do not have a choice.”
Father Lafleur was
assigned to a unit at Albuquerque, New Mexico, in July, 1941. Four months
later the unit, the 19th Bombardment Group, arrived at Clark Field, some 60
miles from Manila in the Philippine Islands.
He was well liked by
all the men he served with. Not the type to wait for things to get done,
Chaplain Lafleur went out of his way to do them. If the men wanted to set up
a baseball team, it was Father Verbis who got the necessary permission.
Father Lafleur started a discussion club on the base, and wrote to his
family about his plans to start a Holy Name Society. “But that is not
enough,” he said. ‘Many things are needed around here.”
Chaplain Joseph Verbis
Lafleur - U. S. Army Air Corps.
Certainly, it wasn’t
always easy. Infact, in November, 1941, the Chaplain wrote to his sister
Edna Lafleur Delery admitting, “When I go back to Louisiana I don’t think
I’ll ever leave it again. I guess that after this stretch I will have done
my share and more. But I really am not sorry that I entered the army. I am
not sorry we came here.” That was the last letter his family ever received
from him. A week after it was written, Pearl Harbor and Clark Field were
attacked.
The young priest walked
hurriedly but calmly about Clark Field, aiding and consoling the wounded
soldiers. Verbis seemed unconcerned by the fact that the field was being
bombed by Japanese planes. Clark Field, like many other U. S. Bases in the
Philippine Islands, was being heavily attacked that December 8, 1941—just
one day after the historic attack on Pearl Harbor.
Japanese planes buzzed
over the Philippine Islands, killing many American soldiers and destroying
aircraft. Chaplain Lafleur gave absolution to the wounded and dying, helping
the doctors administer medical care to those who needed it. He dodged
bullets and shrapnel for the sake of the men he referred to as “the best
soldiers in the world.” His selfless and courageous activity won for the
chaplain the Distinguished Service Cross. Later, Father Lafleur was also
awarded the Purple Heart and the Bronze Star for his bravery and leadership
as a soldier and a chaplain.
After the attack, the
19th Bombardment Group was ordered to be transferred. Father Lafleur was
among those being evacuated by ship. Again, Japanese planes attacked. Seeing
a wounded officer on deck, Father crawled over to drag the man to safety. As
their ship neared a small island, the soldiers began to jump into lifeboats.
Chaplain Lafleur wouldn’t leave until he was sure all the men were in the
boats. Father helped them all to board, then he jumped into the water and
swam to one of the small crafts. When offered an opportunity to return to
the States, Father Lafleur refused, saying “I shall stay here. My place is
with the men.”
When the bombardment
group fell into enemy hands, Father Verbis became a prisoner of war. Still,
he was a priest. While he had the bread and wine, he could offer the
Sacrifice of the Mass; and while he still had clothes on his back, he could
give a more needy man something to wear. His watch and eyeglasses were
traded off to obtain medicine. Even the little bit of soup and rice he was
allotted was shared with the sick and wounded prisoners.
Generosity like that
could not escape notice. The other men began to give portions of their food
or clothing to Father Verbis for redistribution. Father was passionate about
this work in the POW camp. He felt a responsibility to help those not able
to help themselves. He expected the same from the other capable men, those
who were physically and mentally strong. One day Verbis learned that a
certain healthy prisoner had been stealing some of the food for himself. So
infuriated was the chaplain that he chose to risk court-martial. Stripping
himself of all insignia of rank, he physically engaged the thief. As the
fight ended, a loud cheer erupted and the men lifted their Chaplain onto
their shoulders and paraded him throughout the prison camp.
Father Lafleur was
always doing things to keep the morale of the men positive. One of his boys
wrote to Mrs. Lafleur, his mother in Opelousas, that when the men were at
Davoa, Father Lafleur built a chapel “with his own hands.” He called it the
“Chapel of St. Peter in Chairs.” Many soldiers, both Catholic and
non-Catholic, attended the services.
One day the Japanese
captors announced to the prisoners the beginning of a new project. Seven
hundred fifty laborers would be chosen from among the prisoners of war to
clear jungle land on the island. Chaplain Lafleur traded places with one of
the men chosen for the job. After all, he told the others, the men would
need a priest.
Before he left for the
project, Father wrote a note to his family. Written on the back of a label
from a can of milk, it would be his final message. He gave the message to a
Father Kennedy and said, “If we both return to the states, send it back to
me. If I do not return, please sent it to my mother.” The message read:
“Dear Mamma and all. I
have just had a long conference with Chaplain Brown (the head Chaplain at
the camp) and he is letting me go on the LaSange work detail. Mamma, ever
since I’ve heard about this detail I’ve had a feeling that something would
happen and that a Chaplain should go. I’ve tried and tried to get this out
of my head but it is constantly there and I feel that I should go. I do not
have to go, but if I didn’t and something would happen, I would never go
back to the States as I could never face any of you again. I would feel as
though I had not done my duty. So that is why I am going. And it won’t be
many more years before there will be two of us at the Alter. On that day, if
I am here, I will give him my blessing. And if I am not, I will be with you
anyway and I will have a reserve seat up in Heaven. I am sure Our Lord will
let me roll back just one little cloud so I can look down. And from up there
I will have a more beautiful view and a more perfect understanding of what
is going on. So until that day, may God bless all of you. Love, Verbis.”
Thus Father Verbis
became a part of the work detail the next morning. The work progressed for a
time until new orders came from Japan. The prisoners would have to be
relocated. So seven hundred fifty men—hungry, overworked, and nearly
naked—were crammed into the hold of a Japanese ship which set sail for the
Land of the Raising Sun. Three weeks later, the ship was torpedoed by an
American submarine. The Americans would have been trapped, with no hope of
escape, but a kind Japanese officer hurried to open the door of the hold.
“Father, hurry!” The excited Americans urged their chaplain to climb the
ladder to freedom. He refused. Helping the other men up, Chaplain Lafleur
remained near the door. He could not know how few of the men would survive
the short swim to shore. Some Japanese sailors began throwing grenades into
the ship’s hold, and many Americans were shot on deck as they tried to reach
the water. Only eighty Americans made it safely to land, and they are the
one who drew the final picture of their young chaplain, standing near the
ladder to help others escape.
It was some time before
the news of the death of Father Lafleur reached the states. On November 2,
1944 members of the Lafleur family gathered at the family home on West
Grolee Street in Opelousas to tell his mother of his death. Before they
could say anything, she said, “It’s Verbis, he is dead, isn’t he?” She said
she knew because her pine tree died about September 7, the very day the ship
carrying the young priest went down. That pine tree was special to Mrs.
Lafleur. She brought the tree back from St. Joseph’s Seminary in North
Louisiana on the occasion of her first visit to see Verbis there in 1927.
She planted it right outside her window where she could see it everyday.
With time, the pine tree had grown as tall as the house and, in the course
of years, the climbing red roses planted nearby had grown to the top of the
tree. So, the pine tree covered with red roses was a sight to behold. In the
mind of Mrs. Lafleur it stood symbolic of her son’s work in the priesthood.
During the dark days after her son became a POW, she prayed constantly for
Chaplain Lafleur and “the boys.” When not working she would sit in her chair
by the window reciting her rosary and staring at the pine tree near the
window. Then, suddenly, on that day it was dead. No one but she had noticed
the dried up branches of the pine tree and the dead rose vine.
Several months later an
Officer came to Mrs. Lafleur’s home to present posthumously Chaplain
Lafleur’s awards. Strangely, as he was in the house a gust of wind arose and
a cracking noise was heard. Looking out into the yard, all could see that
the dead pine tree had fallen to the earth. Not realizing the significance
of the event, the officer remarked, “There goes a job for someone.”
Thus ended the story of
the pine tree with red roses. How appropriate was the inscription on a card
received by Mrs. Lafleur from a mother whose son also made the journey to
the Philippines just before the War —”The Roses Have Crossed to the Other
Side of the Wall.”
Among the internees who
were liberated from the Philippines during the fall of 1944 was a certain
Father Kennedy of New York. Having remembered the promise he made years
earlier, Kennedy traveled to Louisiana towards the end of the war to visit
with Chaplain Lafleur’s family, where he delivered Verbis’ farewell message.
In that message, Verbis mentioned there would soon be “two of us at the
alter.” The other person to whom Father Lafleur referred was his nephew,
Wilfred Sylvester, who had entered the seminary in September, 1942, while
Father Lafleur was in prison. How he got the message will probably never be
known as, according to Father Kennedy, the prisoners received no mail.
Wilfred had talked about entering the seminary but, because he suffered with
severe asthma, had been advised to wait until finishing high school. As it
happened, Wil Sylvester was ordained a priest on May 10, 1952. He was given
his uncle’s chalice and spent his entire priesthood following Father
Lafleur’s example. Father Wilfred Sylvester died in February, 1999.
In 1945, Verbis
Lafleur’s class mates, family members and friends gathered in Ville Platte,
Louisiana, the place of his birth, for a memorial service in his honor. In
1946, Opelousas held a celebration in memory of Father Lafleur, including a
parade that marched from the St. Landry Parish Courthouse in downtown to the
St. Landry Catholic Church. There would be other remembrances and awards for
Joseph Verbis Lafleur through the years including a very special honor in
Washington, DC. On May 21, 1989, the life of the young chaplain was again
celebrated at the dedication of the Chaplain’ Hill Monument at Arlington
National Cemetery. The monument honors Father Lafleur and other Catholic
Military Chaplains who gave their lives during World War II, The Korean War
and the Vietnam Conflict.
But perhaps the most
significant service held in honor of Father Lafleur was the one at Notre
Dame Seminary in New Orleans, Louisiana. It was there on November 27, 1951
that his classmates, fellow Notre Dame Alumni, Lafleur family members and
friends gathered once again, this time for the dedication of a bronze plaque
in his memory. Today visitors to Notre Dame Seminary will find that plaque
commemorating the selfless sacrifice of Father Joseph Verbis Lafleur of
Opelousas, Louisiana. The inscription reads in French, “Venez voir comment
meurt un pretre en bataille ...mais il ne meurt pas.” - “Come, see how a
priest dies in battle, but he dies not.”
Author’s Note: Father
Joseph Verbis Lafleur was my uncle, my mother’s brother. Although he died
before I was born, my mother kept his memory alive. She spoke of him all the
time, and we were told stories about his life over and over again. Our
family felt his presence in our daily life. In times of need, I have gained
great comfort by remembering “Uncle Verbis” and the sacrifices he made for
others. He was a man of great compassion and understanding, a man of bravery
and courage eager to give all for his God and his country and he
distinguished himself many times during the horrid days of the Second World
War.
To learn more about
Father Joseph Verbis Lafleur, read the following: Man Among Men by Newell
Schindler, published in 1965 and The Roses Have Crossed To The Other Side Of
The Wall by Edna Lafleur Delery, published in 1979.
In the last few years,
there has been a renewed interest in the story of Father Lafleur. A group
has been formed to gather information regarding the life of the young priest
and to look into favors granted. To report favors associated with Father
Lafleur, please contact Richard or Carrol Lafleur at 337/948-6130 or
337/948-7700.
©2003—Carola Lillie
Hartley
Used With Permission
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