Part 2
By Father J. Scott Duarte, J. C.D., Postulator
Published in the Alumni Magazine
of the
Pontifical North American College, Fall 2002
Frank Parater, North American College seminarian, Class of 1925, was recently declared a Servant of God. The process for his beatification has begun. Though he did not live long enough to be ordained a priest, his faith-filled life - and death - prompted those who knew him to declare him a true saint. The second article of this series recounts some of the experiences that influenced Frank Parater prior to his entering Belmont Abbey Seminary College and that prepared him for making a gift of himself to God through an act of oblation for the conversion of non-Catholics.
Frank Parater was born on October 10, 1897, in Richmond, Virginia, ten days after the death of Saint Therese, the Little Flower, who would prove important in Frank's spiritual life. His father, Francis Joseph Parater, Sr., was a Catholic of Portuguese ancestry, and his mother, Mary Raymond, was a former Anglican communicant at St. John's Episcopal Church and a convert to Catholicism. That marriage was his father's second. His first wife was Elizabeth Miller who bore him five children, three of whom survived infancy and grew to adulthood. The eldest son of this first marriage, also named Francis, died in 1887 at the age of twenty-seven, just a few months before the birth of our Servant of God, who was again named Francis Joseph Parater, Jr.
When Elizabeth was ill and learned she was going to die, it is said that she expressed the hope that her husband would remarry, and even suggested Mary Raymond as the person best suited to raise her children. Eleven children were born to this second marriage, but only three survived infancy, Marie, Grace, and Frank, who was the youngest. His sisters were of great importance to him, especially Marie who was his confidant and who later became instrumental in preserving his letters, journals and other documents and personal effects.
Frank was named for his patron saint, Francis DeSales, founder of the Sisters of the Visitation whose monastery was just three blocks from the modest Parater home. Their house faced Jefferson Park, where Francis Parater, Sr. was the groundskeeper, a work that he voluntarily extended to the grounds of the nearby monastery. Frank's father was highly regarded in the city and once was appointed a term on the City Council. This proximity to the Visitation Monastery, Monte Maria, also permitted the Parater family to hear the bells that regulated the life of the Sisters, announced the Angelus, and called the faithful to the 6:40 a.m. Mass. From his first Holy Communion as a boy, Frank faithfully served that Mass until the time that he left home for college, though he also served Mass at his parish church of St. Patrick's. Above the Monastery chapel's altar was the image of the Sacred Heart of Jesus that became a symbol for him of the tremendous love that Jesus has for all people. Frank grew in his devotion and wrote, "Remember the Sacred Heart never fails those that love Him."
His neighborhood, still known as "Church Hill," was densely populated, family centered, and marked by a spirit of ecumenical cooperation. Many of the students at the Sisters' school were Protestants, and as a youth, Frank joined the newly established Scouting movement that met at a local Methodist Episcopal church. He was well known to the Rector of his mother's former parish, St. John's Episcopal Church, itself famous as the site of Patrick Henry's speech, "Give me liberty or give me death!" After Frank's early death, its Rector energetically praised his virtues.
A warm and loving family introduced Frank to a loving God and gave him confidence in himself to overcome the physical limitations of his small stature and to pursue goals that others would have considered beyond their reach. The world was a fascinating place for Frank Parater. He became a collector of sheet music, of post cards, of stamps, and of autographs, writing many notable figures of the time, including several European monarchs, for their autographs and collecting the stamps from their replies! He began a practice of keeping a record of his activities and his thoughts, compiling, for instance, a list of the books that he read. In one year, it amounted to over three hundred titles, many drawn from the classics and poetry. He would often quote from such works in his journals and speeches.
In the Scouts and in high school, he acted in various plays and was sought after as a speaker at public events. Frank was valedictorian of his primary school, his high school, and ultimately at Belmont Abbey College Seminary. In a vigorous debate during high school, Frank argued convincingly for the rights, dignity and innate value of the black man against opponents who argued for the continued segregation or even the re-enslavement of blacks. He carried on copious correspondence with friends, and after leaving home for college, he wrote his family faithfully. His correspondence reveals his personality and his spirituality, just as it provides insight into his family's life and his own experiences. From his personal journals we can also see his personal sacrifices to help others, in spite of a meager income.
These same journals convey Frank Parater's missionary zeal to serve the Church in Virginia and his support for the new organization known as the Boy Scouts of America. His answer to the question, "Why am I a Scout" is to be found in this passage from his writings:
We, Catholics, are selfish. With our Divine Religion and all its wonderful aids for leading a pure and holy life, not to mention our character developing parochial schools and Christian motherhood exemplified in our Catholic mothers…but what of the non-Catholic lad or the son of indifferent parents? Should we not help them? Think of what it would mean if the 8,000,000 boys in America were taught 'To do their duty to God, their country, and to obey the scout law: to help other people at all times, to keep themselves physically strong, mentally awake, and morally straight.' No! It would not make angels of them - we don't want them angels. It would not abolish the flagrant abuses that we witness on all sides. But it would lessen these evils; it would make our Catholic boys better Catholics; it would teach the non-Catholic true Catholic principles of morality; it would produce better men, true patriots and real citizens; it would lead our boys to something higher than mere accumulation of riches or the desire for fame.
Frank enrolled in the Scouting movement on January 19, 1914. Advancing quickly through the ranks, by 1916 he was an assistant scout master, the scribe of Troop 32, and the official photographer of the Richmond Council. He served as camp director in Richmond and during the summer of 1916 was the first camp director of the newly-founded Camp Ackerman in Plainfield, New Jersey. In the camps he ran, he introduced a half hour of prayer in the evening schedule, consisting of a chapter of Sacred Scripture, a talk by the director and the recitation of the "Our Father" followed by silent prayer. His efficiency and organizational skills are noted in newspaper accounts.
As he graduated from primary school, Frank began thinking about the priesthood. He was worried that he could not pronounce Latin well enough to be a priest. When he was only fourteen years old, he began to correspond with Walter Nott, then a Richmond diocesan seminarian at St. Charles College in Catonsville, Maryland, and eventually an alumnus of the North American College, about his desire to be a priest. Nott allayed his fears, encouraged him to pursue his priestly vocation, study Latin, develop skills necessary for public speaking and stick to his high ideals, despite the efforts of some in Scouting and among his friends to dissuade him from his calling.
Frank possessed marvelous talents and gifts. These were crowned with a purity of heart and a missionary zeal that would ultimately find expression in his act of oblation that may be found in the Pontifical North American College's Manual of Prayers. In this stirring document of self-offering, Frank declares that:
I have nothing to leave or to give but my life and this I have consecrated to the Sacred Heart to be used as He wills. I have offered my all for the conversion of non-Catholics…This is what I live for and in case of death what I die for.
The spiritual conversion of others is what he died for - and what he lived for. That, among his many other virtues, is a desire worthy of imitation by Frank Parater's successors at the North American College today.