Following the dedication of the chapel last week, members of Servant of God Fr. Joseph Verbis Lafleur’s family visited the seminary to see the window medallion of their uncle! The holy men and women depicted on the window medallions in the newly renovated Chapel were chosen because of their various connections with priesthood and priestly formation. Fr. Lafleur reminds the seminarians of the type of priest Notre Dame Seminary is desiring to form—one who is willing to give his entire life in priestly ministry to the Lord and to the people he is called to serve.

As an alumnus of Notre Dame Seminary, Fr. Lafleur was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Lafayette in 1938, and he joined the US Army as a chaplain in 1941. During WWII, Fr. Lafleur was taken as a Prisoner of War and spent his time ministering to nearly 800 American POW. Fr. Lafleur died on September 7, 1944, and his body was lost at sea. In 2020, Bishop J. Douglas Deshotel, Bishop of the Diocese of Lafayette, opened Fr. Lafleur’s cause for beatification. Learn more about Fr. Lafleur at https://www.frverbislafleur.com/.