OSV News published a nationally-syndicated column by Effie Caldarola on Blessed James Miller, FSC, ahead of his feast day on Feb. 13. Read an excerpt below.
He was an energetic farm boy from rural Wisconsin, walking daily to a one-room country schoolhouse where a single teacher taught all eight grades.
Later, when James Miller taught high school as a De La Salle Christian Brother, he earned the nickname “Brother Fix-It” for the practical skills he brought from the farm and his willingness to take on any task, from mopping floors to coaching soccer.
When he taught in Central America, his adoring Guatemalan students would call him “Hermano Santiago,” Spanish for “Brother James.”
Today, Brother James Miller, born in 1946, has a new moniker: he is Blessed Brother James, and he is the first American religious brother to be beatified in the journey toward sainthood in the Catholic Church.