Léon Dehon
Clergyman
Died when: 82 years 151 days (988 months)Star Sign: Pisces
Léon-Gustave Dehon, SCJ (14 March 1843 – 12 August 1925), also known as Jean of the Sacred Heart, was a French Catholic priest and the founder of the Congregation of the Sacred Heart of Jesus (the Dehonians).
Dehon's focus in his ecclesial life was to express his closeness with workers but he especially promoted a devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
He established an order in 1878 dedicated to this task and to working in the foreign and diocesan missions in France and abroad.
But impediments caused the order's dissolution.Dehon later reformed and reestablished it in 1884, leading the order until his death.It expanded to North and South America in the early 20th century.
The process for his beatification started in 1952.It was revived in the late 20th century, and information gathering included documentation of a miracle in South America.
The process was halted in 2005 due to allegations by both clerical and secular sources that his published works were anti-Semitic in nature.
He had been named as Venerable on 8 March 1997.
