Rev. Fr Joseph DeMeester, C.SS.R. (1862-1939)
Father DeMeester was born at Roulers, Belgium, on 29 August, 1862 and made his Holy Profession on 15 October, 1882. He was ordained to the Sacred Priesthood on 8 October, 1888.
He was a great and very popular Redemptorist Missioner. His sermons – simple in form but rich in depth, and delivered with an uncommon warmth and conviction, made him a particularly sought after orator.
In the course of his apostolic career which spanned nearly half of a century he preached 1170 Missions and retreats. His varied eloquence touching all classes of persons. Because of his talent for preaching it was his task over many years to introduce his younger confreres to the art of sacred oratory.
He was the director of the Association of the Holy Family as well as the Work of the Foreign Missions. The latter was particularly dear to him and he spread it with a zeal to which many a Missioner rendered homage.
But above all Father DeMeester was a man of prayer. Death, which came on him suddenly at Jette on 10 January, 1939, did not find him unprepared.
He was a great and very popular Redemptorist Missioner. His sermons – simple in form but rich in depth, and delivered with an uncommon warmth and conviction, made him a particularly sought after orator.
In the course of his apostolic career which spanned nearly half of a century he preached 1170 Missions and retreats. His varied eloquence touching all classes of persons. Because of his talent for preaching it was his task over many years to introduce his younger confreres to the art of sacred oratory.
He was the director of the Association of the Holy Family as well as the Work of the Foreign Missions. The latter was particularly dear to him and he spread it with a zeal to which many a Missioner rendered homage.
But above all Father DeMeester was a man of prayer. Death, which came on him suddenly at Jette on 10 January, 1939, did not find him unprepared.
[From Father's mortuary card.]
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