Family celebrates ancestor’s history-making sainthood
Patrick Daniel, a West Island accountant, is a descendant of a Palestinian Christian nun, who was elevated to sainthood at a papal mass in St. Peter’s Square on Sunday.
Genealogists like to joke that if you go back far enough, everyone’s family tree is bound to turn up someone famous.
In the case of Patrick Daniel of Pierrefonds, a 19th-century Palestinian nun has given him special bragging rights.
On Sunday, Pope Francis elevated Daniel’s great, great, great aunt on his mother’s side, the Blessed Marie-Alphonsine Ghattas, to sainthood at a special papal mass in St. Peter’s Square.
She was canonized along with three other female saints, including another 19th-century Palestinian nun, the Blessed Mariam Baouardy, during a ceremony that was attended by thousands of pilgrims, many of them waving Palestinian flags.
The two Palestinian nuns are the first Arab-speaking saints in the Catholic Church.
“It’s actually pretty tough to have a saint in your family tree,” Daniel said.
“Now, everyone thinks I’m a saint,” he added. “They are going to hold me to a higher standard. But at the end of the day, I’m human like everyone else.”
The 39-year-old accountant made the comments late last week before leaving Montreal for Rome to celebrate his ancestor’s exemplary life.
He was joining his brothers, John Daniel of Beaconsfield and Michael Daniel of Dollard-des-Ormeaux, along with their mother, Fadia Ghattas of Dollard-des-Ormeaux, whose great-grandfather was a brother of Marie-Alphonsine.
“That’s my mother’s side,” Daniel said.
“I’m actually related on both sides,” he added, noting another brother of Marie-Alphonsine was an ancestor through the familytree line of his father Daniel (Nino) Daniel, something not uncommon in religious minority communities where second cousins sometimes marry.
He said the West Island family was expected to be part of a larger group of Marie-Alphonsine’s descendants, 111 people from five countries.
Daniel said his mother’s grandfather, Zakaria Ghattas, was the last person in his family to have memories of the living Marie-Alphonsine. But he died in the 1990s, well before Marie-Alphonsine was beatified in 2008 — the first step to sainthood marked after the first of two miracles required for sainthood has been documented. In the case of Marie-Alphonsine, it was a miraculous healing.
Marie-Alphonsine was born Sultana Ghattas in Jerusalem on Oct. 4, 1843, to a devoted Christian family. She was one of 18 children, 11 of whom didn’t survive past childhood.
In 1860, at the age of 17, she became a nun with the Sisters of St. Joseph of Apparition in Jerusalem and took the name of Marie-Alphonsine. She was said to be a de- voted and humble servant of God.
In 1883, she co-founded the Rosary Sisters of Jerusalem, an order that continues to provide care and support for children and the elderly in the Holy Land. She died in 1927.
“I’ve known about her my whole life, but I never really thought much about her,” Patrick Daniel said. “It wasn’t until 2006 when something changed in me and I started to dig a little. I wanted to know more.”
At the time, Daniel said, he was volunteering a lot with the Big Brothers Big Sisters West Island and the Welcome Hall Mission. He decided to pick up a copy of a book containing writings by his great, great, great aunt.
She had left sealed diaries that were translated after her death from Arabic to English, and included inspirational writings based on apparitions she received from the Virgin Mary but never shared pub- licly during her lifetime.
He said the book resonated with him, and one thing led to another and he came to understand his own mother’s devotion to Marie-Alphonsine.
His mother had raised him and his two brothers on her own after losing their father, Daniel (Nino) Daniel, to cancer in 1987, and prayed to Marie-Alphonsine every day and lit a candle.
Since then, he said, he has made Marie-Alphonsine his own protector, as has his wife, Sandra.
“We’re trying to be humble,” he said of the whole business. “It would be show-offy to start shouting out, ‘Hey, my aunt’s a saint.’”
However, he said, it’s something to be proud of and the family has informed the priest at St. Luke Parish on Westpark Blvd. in Dollard-des-Ormeaux, where the family worships.
He said they are looking forward to the possibility of a mass in their great aunt’s name.