EMRSD (Suite 2)

Firefighter Leroy McAtee and Captain H. H. Buddy Edwards

Incident March 19, AD 1954, Mobile, Alabama

The police were making their customary patrol in downtown Mobile on Friday, March 19. The patrol area included the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, the center of Catholic life in the Archdiocese of Mobile, Alabama. At 2:55 a.m., the police observed smoke emanating from the century-old, majestic building and immediately reported it as a fire in progress.

It was a three-alarm fire, and crews from across the city converged on the inferno, hoping to extinguish it quickly and save the historic church dedicated to Our Lady. Apparently, a homeless man gained entrance into the cathedral’s basement and, under the influence of alcohol, lit a fire there in an attempt to warm himself.

A total of twenty-seven water lines were used in the three-hour effort to subdue the flames. The acting Fire Chief, Dan Sirmon, stated it was the most difficult fire to contain in Mobile’s history.

Msgr. Timothy J. Pathe, the cathedral rector, appeared on the scene, and his first thought was to retrieve the Blessed Sacrament from the conflagration. Firefighters forbade him from entering the cathedral. “I have to save the Blessed Sacrament,” pleaded the rector. Two firefighters responded to his plea: Firefighter Leroy McAtee and Captain Buddy Edwards. Notably, the two had been altar servers and were familiar with the cathedral’s layout; this familiarity would be important because the black smoke obstructed their vision. Additionally, having served Mass there for many years, they knew where the tabernacle key was kept—important because they would need to retrieve the Blessed Sacrament. Msgr. Pathe instructed the two firefighters that the tabernacle contained two ciboria and a luna, which contained the consecrated large Host for exposition and benediction.

The two firefighters, amid flames, intense heat, and black smoke, began working their way toward the high altar. McAtee first retrieved the tabernacle key. The firefighters reported that the floor beneath them was becoming increasingly hot. Time was of the essence. Then he and Edwards opened the tabernacle and recovered the Blessed Sacrament: two ciboria and the luna. No sooner had the two firefighters completed this sacred task and begun heading outside than the floor beneath them, on which they stood to retrieve the Blessed Sacrament, collapsed, exposing a large cavity into the consuming fire below. Had they delayed even a couple of seconds, they would have perished in the fire.

The two successfully navigated the harrowing path to safety, whereupon they entrusted to the apprehensive monsignor the precious Body of the Lord in the Blessed Sacrament. Monsignor Pathe expressed his profound appreciation for their personal devotion to the Blessed Sacrament and for their willingness to put their own lives in jeopardy to save Jesus. Receiving the ciboria and the luna from the hands of the firefighters, Monsignor and an accompanying priest hurried off to the chapel inside the chancery, only one block from the fire, to secure the Blessed Sacrament.

Archbishop Thomas J. Toolen expressed his personal gratitude to the firefighter Leroy McAtee and Captain Edwards for their heroism.

Reflection On The Martyrs Of The Eucharist

The fire occurred in the early hours of March 19, which is also the liturgical celebration of St. Joseph. St. Joseph was chosen by Divine Providence to watch over and protect Jesus, the Bread of Life. In this sense, St. Joseph was foreshadowed by Joseph the Patriarch, the son of Jacob and Rachel, in the Old Testament. Joseph was betrayed by his brothers and taken as a prisoner to Egypt. Through a series of providential events, Joseph gained the favour of the pharaoh and was given charge of all the stored wheat in Egypt, in preparation for a future famine. He was the protector of the wheat. When the famine struck, it affected the whole land, including his brothers. When the people complained to the pharaoh that they needed wheat to make bread for their sustenance, his response was “Go to Joseph” (Gn 41:55).

“Go to Joseph,” the great protector of the wheat, the one entrusted with the earthly bread for life, and he will feed you with sustenance for this life. St. Joseph, however, is the real protector of the Bread of Life; he is the one entrusted with heavenly Bread for divine life.

Although the two firefighters on their sacred mission to save the Bread of Life did not mention being guided by St. Joseph, he must have been there, guiding each step they took and preventing harm to them, especially to the One he protected while he lived. Now, from heaven, St. Joseph still protects the Bread of Life.

Should anyone desire to grow in greater devotion to the Blessed Sacrament, then “go to Joseph.”

This is an excerpt from Martyrs of the Eucharist: Stories to Inspire Eucharistic Amazement by Reverend J. Francis Sofie, OP. Martyrs of the Eucharist: Stories to Inspire Eucharistic Amazement is a profound collection of twenty-nine stirring stories, organized into four distinct sections: those who died while attending Mass, those who died while celebrating Mass, those who risked their lives to defend or protect the Eucharist, and those whose deaths are connected to the Eucharist.

Reverend J. Francis Sofie, OP

Fr. Francis Sofie (1964-2024) was born on Good Friday. He graduated from the University of Alabama with a major in Religious Studies and minors in Philosophy and History. He began his theological studies in 1990 at the Angelicum in Rome with the Community of the Eternal Word based in Birmingham, Alabama. He completed his theological studies at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary in Philadelphia, graduating Magna Cum Laude with an MA in Systematic Theology and an MDiv. He switched to study for the Archdiocese of Mobile, Alabama, and was ordained June 10, 1994. As a priest, he served as a parochial vicar, campus minister, and pastor. In 2021, he was diagnosed with terminal colon cancer and was permitted to medically retire. In 2021, he made his profession in the Priestly Fraternity of St. Dominic, thereby becoming a “Diocesan Dominican”. He has published two versions of Stations of the Cross: Walk with Me the Way of the Cross and The Way of the Cross: Discovering Mercy with St. Longinus. He also wrote Praying the Mass from the Pew: A Spiritual Interpretation of the Parts of the Mass.

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