Alain de Boismenu
Alain Marie Guynot de Boismenu (27 December 1870 – 5 November 1953) was a French Roman Catholic prelate who served as the Vicar Apostolic of Papua from 1908 until his retirement in 1945; he was a professed member of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart and the founder of the Handmaids of the Lord.
[3] His confessor and spiritual director Father Barbot admired that order and recommended that he enter their apostolic school in Issoudun where he would arrive on 8 September 1886.
[4] His ecclesial studies spanned from 1888 until 1892 and he later served as a teacher from 1892 until his ordination to the priesthood in Bourges on 10 February 1895 (with Cardinal Jean-Pierre Boyer presiding).
Boismenu also found Pope Leo XIII's Rerum Novarum to be insightful and inspiring due to the working conditions of the poor meshing with theological perspectives on Catholic social teaching.
Boismenu arrived at Yule Island on 25 January 1898 where he set himself on revitalizing the missions there while serving the ailing apostolic vicar with his pastoral duties.
Boismenu received his episcopal consecration in Paris at the Basilica of Montmartre on 18 March 1900 from the apostolic nuncio Benedetto Lorenzelli with Alexandre-Louis-Victor-Aimé le Roy and Louis Couppé serving as the principal co-consecrators.
Boismenu was appointed as the apostolic vicar in January 1908 following his predecessor's resignation and he set out revitalizing and expanding the missions.
[4] Boismenu often suffered from tropical fevers due to the differences in weather which affected his frail constitution though rallied from illness each time.
His episcopal duties and his commitments to his sisters saw him recruit the services of Mother Marie-Thérèse Augustine Noblet (30.9.1889-15.1.1930) who came from France to oversee the formation and direction of the order while he went about his pastoral activities.
On 29 September 1922 he issued a pastoral letter that sought to condemn superstitious practices that went against the Christian faith and which he believed acted against the Gospel.
He likewise praised Pope Pius XI for his Rerum Ecclesiae document and introduced it as "the supreme rule of the apostolate – the salvation of the greatest possible number of souls".
In 1929 he would write to his missionaries and told them that "the pace is good, and is pleasing to God"; this was in reference to the growing expansion of evangelization efforts and greater catechetical formation.
[3] In 1930 he attended another ad limina visit to Pope Pius XI and would take the occasion to return to France to spend time with his relatives.
[4] During the visit of the Australian poet James McAuley to the mission at Yule Island in 1949, de Boismenu made a profound spiritual impression on him and contributed to his conversion to Catholicism.
[3] The beatification process launched on 14 November 1984 after the Congregation for the Causes of Saints issued the official nihil obstat (no objections to the cause) decree and titled Boismenu as a Servant of God.
The diocesan process was inaugurated in the Bereina diocese under its bishop Benedict To Varpin on 6 November 1984 and later concluded its work of collecting documentation and interrogatories on 21 March 1987.
