AN AMERICAN SAINT IN PERU

The Studio of Maneno

Outside of the Studio Maneno

When most Americans hear the name Peru, they think of Lima or Machu Picchu, but those who have followed my blogs from the early days, know there is another part where I spent a total of several months- very north and very dear to my heart. 

Our next man being considered for canonization is an American who spent 20 years in the Prelature of Chulucanas, Peru.  This small, almost unknown to Americans, town, is famous for its pottery, and I made several trips there, always in the evenings, as the trek was inland and hot.  I not only brought home some pieces of the famed pottery- many birds-  but one piece of Mother & Child with bird, was our monastery Christmas card that first year of my visit.

Our Christmas Card Madonna

SERVANT of GOD JOHN JOSEPH McKNIFF, an Augustinian, was born on September 5, 1905, in Media, Pennsylvania.  After completing grammer school, he entered Villanova Prep on the campus of Villanova College, as a postulant. He was accepted into the novitiate in 1923, professed simple vows on June 22, 1924, and solemn vows three years later. In 1927 John graduated with an A.B. degree from Villanova College was sent to the Order's International College, Saint Monica, in Rome, to study theology. He was ordained to the priesthood in 1930, and continued post-graduate studies at the Roman Academy of Saint Thomas, where he earned a doctorate in philosophy in 1932. 
In 1960 Father McKniff was granted an S.T.L. by the Order.

Father McKniff's first assignment after his return to the United States was  teaching. In 1935 Father McKniff volunteered to go to the Philippines, where he taught chemistry at the College of Saint Augustine, Iloilo, on the island of Panay. A serious accident in the chemistry laboratory hospitalized him, and in 1939 he was sent to Villanova Preparatory School, Ojai, CA, to recuperate.

A few months later he was sent to Cuba to teach at the Colegio San Agustin. Within two years he was named pastor of Santo Cristo del Buen Viaje in the old section of Havana City, and for the next 27 years he served the spiritual and physical needs of the people there. He opened a clinic, provided a parish school, enrolled many in the Legion of Mary, and introduced the Augustinian Third Order. With the coming to power of the Castro regime he was one of the few American priests, and the sole Augustinian, not expelled by the government. From 1962 to 1968 he continued to care for the faithful under the most difficult conditions.

When, in 1968, he was compelled for reasons of health to return to the United States the Cuban government took the opportunity to revoke his passport and refuse permission to return. He then served the needs of the people in Troy, N.Y., and Lawrence, Massachusetts.

In 1972, after several requests, Father McKniff was permitted to go to the Prelature of Chulucanas, Peru. There he assisted Bishop John McNabb, O.S.A., in several parishes. He was associate pastor of San Jose Obrero in Chulucanas and taught at the diocesan seminary in Trujillo. During stops at Miami, he would visit former members of Santo Cristo Parish living in exile. In 1994, while in Miami he became ill and on the morning of his flight to Lima, Peru, was taken to Palmetto Hospital in Miami. Over the next weeks his condition grew worse. Visited by many Cuban friends and with his brother Augustinians at his bedside, he died on March 26, 1994. Father McKniff was 88 years of age. 

In 1999, following upon the steady requests of many people of Peru, the diocesan process of the Cause of canonization of Father McKniff was initiated,  not in his native country, but by the poor people in Chulucanas.  Here is one priest who "died with his boots on".