Emiliano Tardif (June 6, 1928, in the City of St-Zacharie,

Quebec Quebec is Canada's List of Canadian provinces and territories by area, largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, ...

, Canada – June 8, 1999) was a

missionary A missionary is a member of a Religious denomination, religious group who is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Thoma ...

who is in the process of being

beatified Beatification (from Latin , "blessed" and , "to make") is a recognition accorded by the Catholic Church of a deceased person's entrance into Heaven and capacity to intercede on behalf of individuals who pray in their name. ''Beati'' is the ...

Life

Emiliano Tardif was born on June 6, 1928, in Quebec,

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

. He became a member of the

Missionaries of the Sacred Heart The Missionaries of the Sacred Heart of Jesus (MSC; ; ) are a missionary congregation in the Catholic Church. It was founded in 1854 by Jules Chevalier at Issoudun, France, in the Diocese of Bourges. The motto of the Missionaries of the S ...

on September 8, 1949. Tardif was ordained a priest on June 24, 1955, and was sent to the

Dominican Republic The Dominican Republic is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles of the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean. It shares a Maritime boundary, maritime border with Puerto Rico to the east and ...

soon after his ordination. There, he became one of the founders of the Missionary Seminary of

San José de las Matas San José de las Matas, also known as Sajoma, is an important Municipalities of the Dominican Republic, municipality (''municipio'') of the Santiago Province (Dominican Republic), Santiago province in the Dominican Republic. The mayor of Sajoma is ...

. From 1966 to 1973, he was the superior of his order. In 1973 he fell ill with tuberculosis, which meant he had to return to Canada for treatment and rest. During this time he was prayed over by some lay people from a charismatic prayer group, who happened to be visiting the hospital. Through this he became involved in the Catholic Charismatic Renewal (CCR) himself and discovered that he had been given a powerful gift of healing by

God In monotheistic belief systems, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator, and principal object of faith. In polytheistic belief systems, a god is "a spirit or being believed to have created, or for controlling some part of the un ...

. From 1997, he was succeeded by the Indian priest Rufus Pereira as a member of the International Catholic Charismatic Council for Renewal. Tardif was well known for his missionary work around the globe, and for what he said to be a healing power from God. He died on June 8, 1999, from heart complications on San Antonio de Arredondo, Córdoba Province,

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. Cardinal Nicolas de Jesús Lopez Rodríguez announced on June 11, 2007, that the

Roman Catholic Church The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

had initiated the beatification process for Tardif.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tardif, Emilio 1928 births 1999 deaths 20th-century Canadian Roman Catholic priests Canadian Servants of God People from Chaudière-Appalaches Miracle workers