Sycamore Trust

If you're familiar with Brother Columba (aka, "The Cobbler of Notre Dame") you have heard of the many accounts of miraculous healings associated with his intercessions to the Sacred Heart of Jesus through the Immaculate Heart of Mary. During his lifetime, he was known for his humility of heart, love of neighbor, confidence in God, lively faith, continual prayer, life of poverty, and devotion to the Sacred Heart. May yesterday's Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus be followed today by a blessed Memorial of the Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

“I was shocked to find so many of my faithful boys among the dead,” wrote [Father Francis] Sampson. “It didn’t seem possible that these young men who had been so confident a week before, whose hands I had shaken before we boarded the planes, who had confessed and received Holy Communion on the eve of D-Day, who had wise-cracked that ‘no N**i bullet has my name on it’—it just didn’t seem possible that they were in eternity now.”

The heroism and religious dedication of Father Sampson, who jumped into Normandy and became known as the “Parachute Padre” and other Notre Dame chaplains who served during World War II are detailed in John Wukovits's "Soldiers of a Different Cloth."

We honor the courage and sacrifice of all those who, 80 years ago in Normandy, put their lives on the line by land, air, and sea for freedom. Let us carry on their legacy by continuing to fight for the values they defended.