North - Dep. Marseille for Zanzibar 10/10/1905; Pemba Mission

Henry J. Koren, Spiritan East African Memorial, 1994 He grew up as a farmer, did his military service and worked in a monastery till he was about 25 years old. Then he felt called to the priesthood and went to begin his junior studies in a Capuchin school. A good student, he did six years in four. One day he encountered a lay associate of the Congregation, who spoke to him about the life of a missionary. On October 17, 1901, he made his vows at Orly, went on to Chevilly for theology and was ordained there on October 28, 1904. With four confreres he could sail from Marseille on October 10, 1905 for the Zanzibar vicariate. He was 34 years old when his apostolic life began at Pemba. \Mth surprising ease he leamed Swahili and could preach his first sermon early in 1906. After one year on Zanzibar island, he went back to Pemba as the director of that station and remained there till 1913. When he retumed from a medical leave later in the same year, Bp. John Neville transferred him to Giriama. He would remain there for nearly 20 years, except for a brief stay at Mombasa in 1923. His love for the Giriama people knew no bounds and sometimes they got the
better of him. Against the wise regulations of the bishop, he liberally dispensed adult catechumens from the second year of religious instruction before baptism if they showed themselves eager for it. When he set up a little store to improve the station's meager finances, he could not bring himself to ask enough payment to cover even the cost of what he sold them. But it all came from the goodness of his heart. Gravely ill, he retumed in 1932 to France for an operation. He died there a few weeks after his anival.