(LifeSiteNews) — On Good Friday 1993 at age 67, Irving C. Houle of Escanaba, Michigan received the stigmata and then suffered the Passion every night between midnight and 3 a.m. for the rest of his life.
He is likely the only known married layman to have received the stigmata. And while other stigmatists such as Padre Pio and Catherine of Siena experienced the Passion only on Fridays, Irving’s was a nightly experience for over 16 years until he died.
In 1995, he also received a locution from Jesus asking him to “touch my children,” and so he obediently began a ministry of physical and spiritual healing.
What makes this humble servant of Christ so remarkable is the everyman quality of his life: He held blue-collar jobs working for manufacturing companies; he and his wife were married for 60 years and raised five children and he was a grandfather many times over; he was a WWII Army vet who served throughout Europe; and he is reported to have been a ”teaser and a prankster” who was “known to have his feelings hurt easily, and at times he had a temper.” Like countless other Catholic dads and granddads, he attended family gatherings and closely followed and attended his grandchildren’s school and athletic events.
In other words, he was in many ways an ordinary 20th century American Catholic man, no different from millions of other men of his generation.
In other ways, he stood out. His Diocese of Marquette online biography states:
Irving kept pictures of the Sacred Heart and the Immaculate Heart on his desk. Once a comment was made about the religious pictures, and he replied, “If they go, I go.” Irving was known to go to a church to pray the Stations of the Cross every day after work, no matter the number of hours worked.
Upon retiring, he spent his days in daily Mass, praying the rosary, the Stations of the Cross, the Divine Mercy Chaplet, and praying for other people. He always prayed 12 Our Fathers and 12 Hail Marys upon arising each day.
He reportedly was disturbed by the public attention he received due to the stigmata and the healings people experienced. “Without fail, he continually pointed the way to Jesus Christ, and he did not call attention to himself. He would not accept any money and prayed for people whenever approached.”
His diocesan biography recounts the undeniable fruits of his ministry:
In general, the effects of Irving’s ministry, clearly increased greatly the faith of the people with whom he came into contact, and devotion to him continues to grow more and more everyday throughout the Diocese of Marquette. The growth of such devotion can be seen in the prayers that are continuing to be offered at the local level for a cause of canonization for Irving, as well as in an increasing desire for local presentations on Irving’s life.
Conversion, repentance, returning to the Sacraments, Mass attendance, hope, physical healings, the experience of being loved fully, deeper prayer lives, perseverance in prayer and belief, and life for many who were suffering with illness and disease have been some of the effects of Irving’s ministry.
Jesus did all of these things through the charism He gave Irving. Irving would be the last person to want anyone to call him a saint. He only wished to serve God and love Jesus, Our Blessed Mother, and the people God put in front of him every day. God used Irving Houle as a sign of his own life for all of us.
“In the life of Irving Houle, we see the extraordinary grace of God at work in an ordinary, simple man who offered his life in love for the Lord and others,” wrote Bishop James Garland, then-bishop of the Diocese of Marquette. “Over the years, Irving’s generous response to simple sufferings disposed his heart to make of his life a generous outpouring of love expressed in prayer and suffering for the conversion of others.”
In June 2019, the U.S. bishops voted unanimously to continue Irving Houle’s cause for sainthood.
