The “Positio super Virtutibus” of Fr. Andrej Majcen Is Delivered in Rome
(ANS - Vatican City – June 13, 2025) - On Thursday, June 5, the volume of the Positio super Vita, Virtutibus et Fama Sanctitatis of the Servant of God Andrej Majcen, Salesian missionary, was delivered at the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints in the Vatican.
The Positio was presented by Fr.
Szczepan Tadeusz Praskiewicz, OCD, with Fr. Pierluigi Cameroni, SDB, as postulator,
and Dr. Lodovica Maria Zanet as collaborator. The structural elements of the Positio
– which presents the entire documentary and testimonial evidence concerning the
virtuous life of the Servant of God in an articulate and in-depth manner – are:
a brief presentation by the relator; the Informatio super virtutibus,
i.e., the theological part in which the virtuous life of the Servant of God is
demonstrated; the two summaria with the testimonial and
documentary evidence; the Biographia ex Documentis; the final sections
and the iconographic apparatus. Special thanks go to Fr. Alojzij Snoj, SDB, for
his passion and the qualified and generous collaboration offered, both in the
diocesan and Roman phases of the cause.
After delivery, the Positio will
be examined by the theological consultors of the Dicastery for the Causes of
Saints. It will then be studied by the cardinals and bishops. These articulated
stages of study and evaluation will allow the Supreme Pontiff, in the event of
a positive outcome, to declare Fr. Majcen a Venerable Servant of God. A miracle
attributed to his intercession will then be needed to open the way to
beatification.
This news aroused great joy both in the
Slovenian Province, the land where the Servant of God was born and which has
accompanied this cause of beatification with great commitment and interest, and
in that of Vietnam, the frontier of his missionary activity after the years
spent in China.
Andrej Majcen was born in Maribor,
Slovenia, on September 30, 1904, the eldest of four children. His parents – Andrej
and Marija Slik – were exemplary for their integrity and dedication to others:
his father, a court clerk, taught Andrej to be good to everyone, not to judge,
to reconcile tensions; his mother, a woman of profound faith whom the Servant
of God considered a religious in the world and who he believed he had never
equaled in devotion, transmitted to him an all-encompassing love for our Lady
and the commitment always to be of God in a changing world.
His father’s and mothers’ teachings found
confirmation for the young Andrej when – after the state teacher-training
school – he was taken on as a teacher at the Salesians in Radna, in an
environment characterized by joy, commitment, and a faith that informs daily
life. To Don Bosco's vocational proposal to become a Salesian, he responded
with a moment of prayer and struggle on his knees before the Blessed Sacrament.
On September 8, 1924, he took part in the
solemn consecration of the shrine of Mary Help of Christians at Rakovnik,
Ljubljana, before officially entering the novitiate on October 4. He went
through the stages of formation to Salesian consecrated life (first profession
on October 4, 1925) and to the priesthood (priestly ordination on July 2, 1933),
while he was entrusted with numerous obediences and was asked to carry a
sometimes excessive burden of hard work, which served as an apprenticeship to
life for him.
After learning of the martyrdom in China of
Louis Versiglia and Callistus Caravario and having met Fr. Jozef Kerec, a missionary,
Fr. Majcen also felt a strong missionary vocation. This path, after
repeated requests, opened up for him in 1935, when the state imposed the
closure of the craft schools in Rakovnik of which he was headmaster. From then
on, it was mainly: in Kunming (Yunnan, China) from 1935 until his expulsion in
1951 at the hands of the Communists; in Hanoi in North Vietnam (1952) and in
Saigon in South Vietnam (from 1956). Here, much loved and already accompanied
by a reputation for holiness, he lived the season of most intense fruits of his
Salesian life, founding the Congregation in Vietnam, with different
assignments, but above all as novice master.
Expelled from South Vietnam by the Communist regime (in 1976), after a period in Taiwan, he returned to his homeland in 1979 to take care of his health and, against all expectations, his superiors asked him to stay in Slovenia, then part of Communist Yugoslavia. Here, too, he lived in a persecuted Church and in communities impoverished of so many goods. Except for the first few months, he always had a home in Rakovnik, under the mantle of his dear Mary Help of Christians.
From Slovenia Fr. Andrej Majcen led an intense
action of mission promotion and mediation with Vietnam, including on behalf of
the Salesian major superiors. Above all, he became a sought-after and beloved
confessor. His reputation for holiness accompanied him in his homeland as well
as in Vietnam, for whom he remains an unforgettable father.
He died on his 95th birthday. More than 100
priests concelebrated at the funeral, and all experienced the moment of
farewell as a paschal experience and one of gratitude to God. His legacy is
also 3,417 pages of diaries and meditations from which transpires the
commitment – so he said – to “walk in the footsteps of the saints.”
No comments:
Post a Comment