Blessed Edward Poppe

1890 - 1924

Feastday: June 10

In Belgium, it is Edward Poppe who is responsible for a general revival of religious education. He was a Flemish (Belgian) priest with a special fondness and attention for the poor, the young and the sanctity of the priests. He was an apostle and herald of this time, especially of the Eucharist, of Mary Mediatrix and of love for the Church. Poppe gives a method, in line with the communion decrees of Pins X, aimed at religious education around the Eucharist (Eucharistic Crusade). His ideas were further elaborated catechetically by the Sisters van Vorselaar in their "Method of Religion".

Edward Poppe was born in Temse near Sint-Niklaas, East Flanders (Belgium) on December 18, 1890, in a modest baker's family. The day after his birth he was baptized in the parish church and was given the name Edward Johannes Maria. On March 20, 1902, he took his First Communion. In the year 1907, when he was the oldest of the large family and barely 17, his father died. Poppe became practically "the father" of the household from now on. During his school years he became a member of the Algemeen Katholiek Vlaamsch Studentenverbond and in 1909 he decided to become a priest in the service of "poor Flanders", which he had come to know and love from home and in the student movement.

While Poppe studied, he also took charge of the whole family. He attended the minor seminary in Sint-Niklaas-Waas from 1905 to 1910, until he became a soldier in order to release his brother from military service. During his service he studied philosophy at the University of Leuven. After his military service he entered the Institute Leo XIII in Leuven on March 13, 1912, where he received the tonsure (or crown shearing) on ​​October 20 of the same year. In Leuven he read the book "The true Godliness to Mary" by Saint Louis-Marie Grignion de Montfort. This marked a fervent adoration of Our Lady on his further life.

In the year 1913 Poppe obtained the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and in the year 1915 he again attended the major seminary in Ghent, where he was ordained a priest on May 1, 1916. He became active as a curate in the poor Ghent workers' parish Sint-Coleta, after which he took care of the street children. Everything the priest owned went to the most needy: his money, his food, even his bed, and when all that was given away, he did not hesitate to take his violin - and he loved violin music so much - and his pocket watch to the Mount of Mercy. to help a poor woman whose husband was in prison. But more than the poor and the sick, Edward Poppe loved the children, especially the most miserable. His motto was: "I would rather die than serve God only half".

After the First World War, Poppe became rector of the monastery at Moerzeke. From 1922 he was spiritual leader of a training course for stretcher nurses. Two years later Edward founded the Carmelite Monastery near Leopoldsburg.
For health reasons, he moved to rural Moerzeke at the end of the war to regain strength as rector of the monastery (1918-1922). Four years of contemplation and study, half of which in bed, were enough for Poppe to use word and pen to alert Flanders to the difficult times that were imminent: the breakthrough of Marxism, secularization and materialism that are disrupting Church and society.

In his last letter of May 12, 1924, he wrote to his spiritual director: "My mission seemed to me to be multiplied by the complete sacrifice of my life. And because I found myself unworthy of my mission, therefore I presented myself to God as a grain of wheat to be multiplied by death and disappearance in many other apostles of the Kingdom, better than myself ”. God accepted that offer and called His servant to Him on June 10, 1924.

More than in Poppe's day, there is now the problem of the shortage of priestly vocations and, indeed, that of the temptation and dangers to which the called ones are exposed. Let us therefore pray urgently that Poppe's sacrifice of life may blossom into a rich harvest of many and holy priestly vocations. Pope Paul VI was not without reason referring to the Servant of God as the example set for the priests of today, especially the younger generation.

The most beloved priest of Flanders died on June 10, 1924 at the age of 33 in Moerzeke. On October 3, 1999, he was beatified by Pope John Paul II. The Pius X chapel is also located in Moerzeke, where the remains of priest Edward Poppe are buried. This burial chapel is a true work of art and was designed by architect Lantsogh from Bruges.

Grace sparkles

(From Poppe's writings)

  • Jesus blesses in a special way those who pray for his future priests.

  • Holy priests sanctify the parish, renew the fervor of the monasteries, recreate the youth. Holy priests will hit stones.

  • Times are so hard that only saints benefit.

  • A holy priest works miracles in the soul world

  • How can the world be saved? Ah, no different, I think, than by holy priests.

  • The saints only leave traces; the others make a noise, but leave nothing on their way through.

  • Intermediate types? The world plays with that.

  • Jesus' poor evangelical life must shine so brightly in us that they recognize and love Him in us. The people remain susceptible to the argument of a dead priest.

  • Christ's kingdom must come through the priests, through voluntary little, poor, humble priests.

  • A holy priesthood is the most beautiful praise that you can offer Me, your Lord: “Laus Deo”. So a living benediction for heaven and, in my Church, for souls.

  • Learning is a precious gift, but in the end everything comes down to holiness and everything flows from it.

  • A day without Mass is a day without sun.

  • A holy priest is happy, makes happy, lives happy, dies happy!

  • Everything comes from Mary: Jesus, grace and holiness.

Prayer to Edward J.M. Poppe


Almighty Eternal God, who, to the glory of your Church and to the growth of your Kingdom in souls, has raised up your servant EDWARD, we entreat You with confidence that You would deserve to glorify him on earth and let his name shine In the heaven.
Eucharistic Heart of Jesus, work in your Servant EDWARD, the wonderful works of your merciful Goodness and soon give as patron and patron saint of the Eucharistic Action the one who was its apostle and the inspiring leader.
And You, O Mary, Queen and Mediatrix Of all graces, remember the total devotion of your child and love slave: magnify him now before the face of the world, as he himself has always glorified you during his lifetime.
Amen.

Poppe's prayer for holy priests

Lord Jesus, if no holy priests arise, what fruits will your shed Blood, your death on the cross, your Eucharist yield?
The poor wander, sink, and are forgotten: Send your priests!
The children are slipping away from us: Send your priests! When priests do you look, Jesus? When priests of the poor? When priests for the mansard rooms, priests for the little ones, priests for the slum dwellers? When are they coming?
Do you not see, Lord, that souls are sinking in great numbers in worldly sense and frivolity, in self-indulgence and unfaithfulness, in indifference and unbelief?
Jesus, give us priests with the spirit of the Apostles. Poor by the poor! Small with the little ones! When do they come, the priests who live with the poor, priests who go from house to house, who seek the sheep in the backstreets of poverty and sin? Where are they, Jesus? For thousands your Blood continues to be shed in vain! Is the world heading towards its spiritual doom? Is there anything the little ones can do about it that their parents were not up to the task and that their priests are not saints?
Lord, send Thou priests, thine, the true, the poor, the holy! If you send your priests, those little ones can be saved, innumerable poor can be brought into your love, and you be preserved forever.
Remember, O Jesus, what you have suffered, remember your endless love and the innocence of the little ones! Send your priests! Mother, show you Mother! Priests, Jesus! Real priests!

Mary, Queen of the Priests, for the sake of Poppe's sacrifice of life, give us many priests who make Poppe's Eucharistic, Marian and hierarchical ideal theirs! Mother, give us holy priests!
Amen.