Francis J. Parater

A Life Offered Completely

Francis Joseph Parater was born on October 10, 1897, in Richmond, Virginia, to a devout Catholic family. From boyhood he showed a quiet, determined character. He attended Benedictine High School, where the monks noted his exceptional devotion, and earned the rank of Eagle Scout, one of the earliest in the state of Virginia.

Frank graduated as valedictorian from Belmont Abbey College in North Carolina in 1917 and entered St. Mary Seminary in Baltimore to study for the priesthood. His intellectual gifts and spiritual depth caught the attention of his bishop, who sent him to the Pontifical North American College in Rome in 1919 to complete his theological studies.

In December 1919, Frank composed his Act of Oblation, a document in which he offered his entire life to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. “I have nothing to leave or to give but my life,” he wrote, “and this I have consecrated to the Sacred Heart to be used as He wills.” He sealed the document in an envelope marked “To be opened only in the case of my death.”

Less than two months later, on February 7, 1920, Frank Parater died in Rome of rheumatic fever. He was 22 years old, just months from ordination. When his Act of Oblation was found and opened, it moved all who read it, including Pope Benedict XV, who called it a spiritual document of the highest order. Pope Pius XI would later reference it as well. In 2001, the Diocese of Richmond opened his cause for canonization. He became the first person born in Virginia to be nominated for sainthood in the Catholic Church.

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