Blessed Lucien Botovasoa

Blessed Lucien Botovasoa was a Malagasy schoolteacher, a husband and father, a Franciscan tertiary, and a catechist at Vohipeno in Madagascar. In 1947 he was killed for the faith; before he died he prayed for those who were killing him. The Church commemorates him on April 17, the day of his death.

He was born in 1908 at Vohipeno, in the southeast of the island, the eldest of nine children. His family was among the first in that place to embrace Christianity. Lucien was baptized on April 15, 1922. He studied at the state school and then at the College of Saint Joseph at Ambozontany, run by the Jesuits. He came back with a teaching diploma and began to teach at the parish school in his native Vohipeno.

On October 10, 1930, he married Suzanne Soazana. They had eight children, five of whom survived. Lucien was not only a teacher but also a catechist, and from 1943 he was head of the parish school. He knew several languages, was an esteemed musician, and directed the parish choir. He was remembered as a cheerful man, generous to those in need.

In 1940 he came to know the Rule of the Third Order of Saint Francis, and he gathered around him a group of people who wanted to live by it. On December 8, 1944, he received the habit of a tertiary. From then on he lived in poverty, prayed also at night, attended Mass every morning, and fasted on Wednesdays and Fridays. His wife more than once asked for time for the family, and he tried to reconcile prayer and parish work with his duties as a husband and father.

After the Second World War the desire for independence from France grew in Madagascar, and hostility toward the colonizers turned against missionaries and Christians as well. On March 30, 1947, Palm Sunday, an uprising broke out in the nearby town of Manakara. Churches were burned and Christians were hunted down; many of them, Lucien and his family included, took refuge in the forest. The local king, Tsimihoño, a supporter of the insurgents, ordered the “Christian teacher,” whom everyone respected, to return, and threatened otherwise to massacre his family. Lucien entrusted his wife and children to his brother and went back to Vohipeno.

On the evening of April 17, 1947, he was taken to the king’s house and, without a trial, condemned to death for being a follower of Christ. At the place of execution, by the Matitanana River, he knelt down and prayed for his executioners. He was beheaded, and his body was thrown into the river. It is related that before his death he foretold to the king that he too would die a Christian. In 1964 the dying Tsimihoño sent for a priest and asked for baptism.

On May 4, 2017, Pope Francis recognized Lucien’s death as martyrdom, and on April 15, 2018, the anniversary of his baptism, the beatification took place at Vohipeno. In his apostolic letter the Pope called him a man of faith, an exemplary educator, a caring father, and an apostle of reconciliation and peace.