Jérôme Lejeune
French pediatrician and geneticist (1926–1994)
The Vatican record
- 21 January 2021 — Heroic virtue declared — title Venerable (decree list, 2021)
Who they were
Jérôme Jean Louis Marie Lejeune (French pronunciation: [ʒeʁom ʒɑ̃ lwi maʁi ləʒœn]; 13 June 1926 – 3 April 1994) was a French pediatrician and geneticist. He is best known for his work on the links between chromosome abnormalities like Down syndrome (trisomy-21) and cri du chat syndrome. He is also known for his subsequent strong opposition to the use of amniocentesis prenatal testing for eugenic purposes through selective and elective abortion. He was declared Venerable by Pope Francis on 21 January 2021.
Summary from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0), until this page is written up in full.
The miracles
The Church has declared this person’s heroic virtue, which is what the title Venerable means. One approved miracle is needed before beatification.
Why that counted as sanctity
Limited information available on this saint.
- Dicastery for the Causes of Saints — promulgated decrees (causesanti.va), summarised in our own words
- Wikidata Q435686 — dates, feast day and identifiers (CC0)
- English Wikipedia — Jérôme Lejeune (CC BY-SA)
Not yet written up in full. The dates and the step marked “Vatican record” come from the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints; the rest comes from Wikidata and is not yet checked.