MISSIONARY JESUIT TO THE ESKIMOS

In this year we have  written about many missionaries:  Sister Clare Crockett (Blog 4/17), Irish nun who died in Ecuador, Bl. Richard Henkes (9/18), S of God Madeleine & Raoul Follereau (2/11) dedicated their lives to the lepers in East Africa,  Servant of God John Joseph McCauley (2/18),  to name a few. This next missionary is a bit closer to home in the Northwest.

FATHER SEGUNDO LLORENTE a Jesuit missionary spent most of his apostolic life deep in the Arctic Polar Circle. He was born on November 18, 1906 in Mansilla Mayor in the province of Leon, Spain. At the early age of 17 he answered the call to become a priest, and at 19 went to the missions. His brother Amando, also became a Jesuit, who became a teacher and mentor to Fidel Castro, and later was a chaplain and director of spiritual services for the U.S. Army in Miami.  

  

In 1930 he traveled to the US as a member of the Oregon's Jesuit Province to teach at Gonzaga High School in Spokane, Washington. In 1931 he studied theology in St. Mary’s College in Kansas, followed by ordination in1934.  He also spent time in studies in Alma, California.

In 1935 he departed for Alaska in a 37 days trip to Akulurak. He later did a tertionship in Port Townsend, Washington.

He had volunteered for "the most remote and difficult places", and soon after obtained permission to go to Alaska. Forty years among the Eskimos, he traveled thousands of miles and dwell on both sides of the Yukon River. He spent long seasons in Akurulak, Bethel, Kotzebue, and Alakanuc, the first being the place of some of his most exciting memories made famous in the book "Crónicas Akurulakeñas". Father Segundo went back to Spain only once, in 1963, a trip design to encourage vocations to the priesthood.

In 1938 he  was assigned to Kotzebue in Alaska and by 1941 was appointed Superior of Akulurak. In 1960, he won a seat in the 2nd Alaska State Legislature as a write-in candidate, becoming the state’s first Catholic priest elected to office.

In 1975 after 40 years in Alaska, he was transferred to Moses Lake, Washington, and six years  later to Pocatello, Idaho.

In 1984 he became chaplain at St. Joseph Hospital in Lewinston, Idaho and died five years later in Spokane, Washington. He was buried in Desmet, Idaho.

He wrote twelve books about Alaska, all of them in Spanish, even though four years of theology school in Kansas gave him a perfect command of the English language. He was also able to speak sufficient "Eskimo" language to make himself understood among the natives. He wrote thousands of letters, with his deep and habitual flare, inviting the youth of the world to join the priesthood and the rewards of becoming missioners. His letters and essays about life among the Eskimos were published in the magazines "Misiones" and "El Siglo de las Misiones". All this correspondence gave way to the publication of several books but the best is considered to be "40 Years in the Polar Circle", a work prepared by his brother, the Father Amando Llorente, SJ with the collaboration of Dr. Jose A. Mestre.

He never said no to God and  lived a happy life as a priest.  Testimonies about this attitude were attested several times in his writings, particularly in the following paragraph of the previously cited book: "Neither the Blessed Virgin nor the angels can do what priests do every day, Christ could have arranged things in many other ways; but He chose the intervention of the priests. Upon this figure He partakes to bring salvation to the human race". 


In spite of his many labors, there is a real contemplative side to his spiritual side.  Was it the long dark days and nights that gave him time to reflect and pray?   "In the darkness of the church in Nunajak, He and I, alone, without words, understand each other; we rest and make our heaven on Earth".

"During my visit to the U.S.A., when I entered those enormous temples it felt as if I was in a public plaza. Here in Nunajak there are no such temples; here, by the altar, I could swear that Jesus can hear the most silent whispers".

"In the great churches of the cities and even in the small towns, there is a tabernacle, so distant from the people that it looks as if one were also far from the Most Holy".

"Among the promises to the devotes of his Sacred Heart we could not miss a most special one for his priests, the promised grace to soften the hearts of those most hardened"

"It seems very common for the Lord having to obey; when I consecrate He must obey; when I absolve He must approve, if there is no faulty impediment; When I baptize He must adopt the creature. He voluntarily submitted Himself to us, as it is often said: "He opted to be at our service".