Talk:Léon Bourjade

Hyperbole?

Someone cast doubt on whether Bourjade actually died of leprosy contracted by ministering to Papuan sufferers of the disease, as previously stated. French Wiki says he died of "Hematuria" - which is a symptom rather than a disease (blood in the urine), and doesn't sound much like leprosy. On the grounds that we don't have real authority for the statement - the "Flight" article referenced has several definite inaccuracies - among other things it identifies his place of death incorrectly. One imagines the French would have made more of it, especially as the French Wiki article is much longer, and dwells far more on his religious life. Anyway, I have altered the article slightly, just to be on the safe side, on the grounds that it is better to be conservative in these things.

Apparently he was the subject of reverential and "improving" literature, notably a work called Bourjade le papou of 1934 (literally "Bourjade the Papuan" - although we'd say something like Bourjade of Papua). One gets the impression that he was at one time "on the way" to canonisation, although eventually it seems nothing came of it. My wife went to the Sacred Heart high school on Yule Island in the early sixties and she remembers one of the nuns talking about him to her class. If a better French speaker than me can get hold of a copy of Bourjade le papou it may be interesting, although it is likely NOT to be a good encyclopedic source. One can imagine natural French hyperbole combined with the kind of eulogy reserved for prospective saints. --Soundofmusicals (talk) 12:37, 31 May 2014 (UTC)

Much later (!) Someone finally popped in on this one - an overdose of (or maybe an adverse reaction to) quinine sounds more likely as a cause of his early death than leprosy, which usually takes years to develop - but of course "what sounds likely" is a very bad source - as is familial connection (either mine or that of the recent editor) or what is on another Wiki (unless it is well sourced there of course). I have tweaked the passage concerned into something more closely resembling good English, but we still need something a bit more authoritative here. Have inserted a "cn" tag - I hate them and wish they were abolished but this one case... --Soundofmusicals (talk) 04:20, 17 December 2016 (UTC)