John was a Jesuit scholastic. One of three unusually young Jesuit saints, the others being Gonzaga and Koska.
Berchmans was a Fleming and of modest social origins. This would have prevented his receiving a good education but for the intervention of Canon Froymont of Michlin, who took him into his household.
In 1615 the Jesuits opened a school there and Berchmans entered the Society as a novice in 1616. Soon afterwards his mother died and his devout father gave up his profession of shoemaker and became a priest in 1618. In the same year John was sent to Rome to study philosophy, in which his exemplary achievements matched those of his noviciate.
When he had completed the course in 1621, he was asked to defend 'the entire field of philosophy' in a public disputation. This was held in July, following shortly after his finals examination. In August he was asked to represent the Roman College at another disputation this time at the Greek College.
At this distance it seems that these demands on a young man of 22 in the extreme heat of a Roman summer, were excessive.
The day after the second disputation he fell ill with dysentery. Incurable fevers then set in; he became weaker and weaker, and died only a week later.
Many came to see him before he died, as he had an outstanding reputation as a man of prayer and for constant cheerfulness and perfect obedience.
But there were real tensions in his life. There are reports that he found the Jesuit regime intolerable and wished to leave it.
Contemporary accounts of his attractive character survive. He was buried in the church of St Ignatius at Rome, but his heart was taken to the Jesuit church in Iouvain.
He was canonised in 1888, and his feast day is the 26th November.
Written and contributed by Phillip Lloyd.
