For the Spiritan family, 28 February marks the anniversary of the death of Blessed Daniel Brottier, whose spiritual influence remains alive and fruitful. Born on 7 September 1876 in La Ferté Saint Cyr, in the Loir-et-Cher department, he was a lively and deeply religious child, inspired from an early age by the desire to devote his life to the Church. Ordained a priest in 1899, he began his ministry as a teacher in Pontlevoy, where his pedagogical skills and attention to young people already made him a remarkable educator. But prayer, a place of truth and inner availability, broadened his horizons. In 1902, he joined the Congregation of the Holy Spirit and, the following year, arrived in Saint Louis, Senegal. There, he displayed an inventive charity and a contagious apostolic zeal. He summed up his missionary ideal in a phrase that has become emblematic: ‘Let us be the Gospel in action’ (1909).
A man of simple and daring faith, he lived with total trust in Providence. He liked to repeat: “I never worry: it is God who worries about me.” “This inner certainty gave him an astonishing freedom and explained the peace, joy and efficiency that marked all his undertakings. He attributed everything to God and to Saint Thérèse of Lisieux, his invisible collaborator“.
When war broke out in 1914–1918, his courage drove him to risk his life to support wounded soldiers. As a chaplain at the front, he shared the dangers of the combatants, relieved them, heard their confessions, and accompanied them to the most exposed trenches. His bravery earned him the Legion of Honour and the Croix de Guerre, but above all the deep admiration of the soldiers.
After the armistice, he devoted himself to the orphans of Auteuil with the same missionary zeal. A few weeks before his death on 1 January 1936, he wrote a luminous page that admirably expresses his sense of Spiritan identity: “The work of Auteuil is truly Spiritan… Poullart des Places must be happy that the Congregation founded to help “poor schoolchildren” is now responsible for a work for poor and unsupported orphans, in conditions such that tomorrow multitudes of destitute children without families may be welcomed by the sons of Poullart des Places. ” (01/01/1936, L14, art. ms).
On this 28th of February 2026, ninety years after his departure, we remember a missionary who was entirely devoted to the poorest of the poor and faithful to the intuition of the founders. His life, marked by unshakeable confidence, constant courage and inventive charity, left a luminous mark that continues to inspire the Spiritan family. Beatified in 1984, Daniel Brottier remains for us a model of openness to the Spirit and absolute trust in God.
Crispin Mbumba Kawanga