Marcel Callo, layman (1921–1945)

Biography

Marcel was what the French call a “true Breton,” stubborn and energetic. It took him years to master his temperament, and the responsibility he had within the Catholic Worker Youth helped him a lot. By day Marcel worked in a publishing house and never kept a secret about his Catholic conviction. “Marcel had only one face,” said one of his friends. In 1940, France was occupied by German troops. Marcel and his YOC companions dedicated their free time to the “reception center” of the Rennes railway where thousands of refugees arrived. There he sought to make contact with his countrymen who would be taken to Germany for forced labor. They lent them their Red Cross bracelets and thus managed to save many from being sent away. However, to help them so much, it was Marcel's turn and he ended up in a camp in Thuringia. There he founded a theater club, a sports club and organized meditations. To strengthen his loyalty to Christ, Marcel followed a rigorous program of spiritual life. He was the undisputed leader of the thousand teenagers in the camp whom he saved from despair. In 1944, the Gestapo arrested Marcel for "being too Catholic. He was sent to a camp in Austria that was a true hell and in which he did not manage to survive. On the day of his death, March 19, 1945, he was 23 years old. He was beatified in Rome on October 4, 1987 with the presence of some members of his family.