10th anniversary of Fr. Émilien Tardif
On Thursday, June 18, at 7 p.m., at Rapide-Danseur, and Friday, June 19, at 7 p.m., at the Mother House of the Sisters of Notre-Dame Auxiliatrice, on the feast of the Sacred Heart, a Mass will be celebrated at each place to mark the 10th anniversary of the death of Father Émilien Tardif. It will be followed by a teaching and a ministry of prayer for the sick.
Tour at Rapide-Danseur
Who is Émilien Tardif?
Father Émilien Tardif was ordained a priest in the community of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart on June 24, 1955, at Rapide-Danseur in Abitibi-Ouest. In 1956 he went to the Dominican Republic, where he became a professor at the Seminary of San José de Las Matas until 1963. From 1959 to 1963 he founded and directed a journal that still appears today, Amigo del Hogar (Friend of the Home). From 1966 to 1973 he became superior of his congregation in the Dominican Republic, and in 1971 he was the provincial administrator of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart.
In 1973 he was miraculously healed of acute tuberculosis, which made him a man of God and a much sought-after preacher, to whom a strong healing charism is attributed. When healings occurred, Father Tardif would declare: “Sick people, you are right to ask the Lord to be healed; you must not be afraid of the love of Jesus, of the abundance of his love.” He died suddenly on June 8, 1999 while preaching a retreat at Cordoba in Argentina.
For this unique occasion, the diocese receives a visit from Father André Dumas, M.S.C., a confrere of Father Émilien, who will be accompanied by Roberto and Maria Sangiovanni, co-founder of the Servants of the Living Christ, a community that has several houses of prayer and evangelization throughout the world. A mother of five children, she is a woman of faith full of charisms which she places at the service of the Church. These visitors from the Dominican Republic wish to see the places where Father Tardif lived, the family home and above all the parish church where he was ordained a priest.
These meetings of June 18 and 19 are meant to celebrate the 35th anniversary of the first evening of prayer of the Charismatic Renewal, which was held at the Mother House in June 1974 and in which Father Tardif took part. It was he who inaugurated the evening of prayer that has been held there ever since. It should be noted that he is the brother of Sr. Adrienne Tardif, N.D.A. A process toward his beatification was opened on July 15, 2007 by Cardinal Lopez Rodriguez.
An article published in L’Église de Rouyn-Noranda, vol. 9, no. 10, June 2009.