Some call him the greatest missionary to ever come to the United States. For years, Monsignor Joseph Buh lived a simple life, devoted to others.
He served the Native American and Slovenian Immigrant communities by creating deep relationships of trust, learning to speak the language of the people he served, and being passionate in his writings and preaching about the healing, hope, and joy that we can only find in Jesus as our Lord and Savior.
As you learn about Msgr. Buh, allow the spirit of his life to inspire you to grow closer to Jesus as you are called to be a missionary disciple. Reflect on how he evangelized the people he served as a model for our own time and how we might understand our call to evangelize simply by creating relationships of trust, learning the language of the people we serve, and being passionate in our witness to the healing, hope, and joy that we can only find in Jesus as our Lord and Savior.
He was considered a saint by Bishop McNicholas and his peers when Msgr. Buh was buried in 1922; we are exploring his cause for beatification as the Diocese of Duluth. Be it the will of God, this holy missionary priest living in his missionary time will become the missionary saint interceding for us in our own missionary time.
"Saints offer us encouragement, like the runner just ahead of us in the race, urging us on," says well-known author Fr. James Martin, S.J. "The saints are models of what our lives could be".
Fr. Richard Kunst, director of the beatification process of Msgr. Buh, has stated in some of his works, "we do not hesitate to ask a family member or friend to pray for us when we are about to go in for a surgery or take a test. If we can pray for one another on earth, why can't someone who is now with God in heaven do the same thing?"
Pope St. John Paul the Great often was criticized for canonizing so many saints, but he would say that we live in a time that needs saints more than ever. We live in a dark period of history that needs more and more examples of the Gospels lived.
And what it boils down to...is that is what a saint is. A saint is a person who lived the Gospels. The church, in all her wisdom, gives us guideposts, people who have lived through the centuries who not only walk with us in our pilgrim journeys, but also have given us examples of how to follow Christ.
Monsignor Joseph Buh, pray for us.
We are searching for first or second hand stories of Monsignor Joseph Buh. If you have photos, stories, articles, please send them to us, we would love to share more details of his life!