Francis Libermann

Ven. Francis Mary Paul Libermann
An 1880 lithograph of Francis Libermann (the image in the upper left corner is of the Immaculate Heart of Mary)
Born	14 April 1804 in Saverne, Alsace
Died	2 February 1852(1852-02-02) (aged 49) in Paris, France
Venerated in	Roman Catholic Church
Feast	2 February

Francis Mary Paul Libermann (French: François-Marie-Paul Libermann; born Jacob Libermann; 14 April 1802 – 2 February 1852) was a 19th-century French Jewish convert to Catholicism who was a member of the Spiritan order. He is best known for founding the Congregation of the Immaculate Heart of Mary which later merged with the Congregation of the Holy Ghost. He is often referred to as "The Second Founder of the Holy Ghost Fathers". He was declared venerable in the Roman Catholic Church on 1 June 1876, by Pope Pius IX.

Jacob Libermann was born into an Orthodox Jewish family in the ghetto of Saverne, Alsace, France in 1802. As a young man, Libermann prepared to follow in the footsteps of his father, the Chief Rabbi of Saverne. He would later relate how he lost his faith in Judaism after entering a yeshiva. Treated with disdain by two of the professors there, he began to read French literature, especially Rousseau, with the result that he became an agnostic. Later during this period of agnosticism, another rabbinical student gave him a Hebrew translation of the Gospels. Being always a very moral person, Libermann was captivated by the high moral tone of Jesus' discourses, though he could not accept the supernatural elements in the Gospels. Then, however, he received three blows to his agnosticism when two of his brothers, to whom he was very attached, and an old friend and former fellow student converted to Roman Catholicism. He, too, began to find himself drawn toward the Catholic Church. After arriving in Paris, where his father had sent him to pursue his studies, he made his decision and Jacob Libermann was baptized on 24 December 1826, taking the name François Marie Paul. He entered a Paris seminary in the same year to study for the priesthood. The knowledge of his conversion was long concealed from his father, who was horrified to learn of his favorite son's actions. When the news of his baptism reached Saverne, his father mourned him as dead.