Brendan Kelly, a saintly teenager with Down Syndrome who died from leukaemia

The Little Children Being Brought to Jesus

Rembrandt [Web Gallery of Art]

A few weeks ago I came across an article in Crisis Magazine with the intriguing title Brendan Had Three Babies by Austin Ruse. (There is a delightful photo of Brendan there supplied by his family that I was unable to save.) Brendan Kelly, from Virginia, USA, was born with Down Syndrome and developed leukaemia at a young age. This eventually led to his death at the age of 16 in 2013. Here are the opening paragraphs of Austin Ruse's article.

Every year on the anniversary of his passing, Brendan Kelly gives a little gift to a woman who was close with him. It has never been great big things, but always a kind of wink that Brendan is there, and that he loves her. This past May was the 10th anniversary of this 16-year-old boy’s passing, a boy with Down syndrome and a lifelong struggle with leukemia that eventually took his life. 

This year she waited and waited for the little gift that she expected. At the last minute, she was invited to a fundraising dinner for a local school here in Northern Virginia, and she thought that was a lovely little present from Brendan. It was bigger than that, though. That night, she sat at the table and struck up a conversation with a couple sitting near her, Joe and Roxanne Miller. Over the course of the evening, they realized that their little girl, Megan, also with Down syndrome, also with leukemia, had been on the cancer ward with Brendan nearly 16 years ago, when she was 11 months old. Megan was one of “Brendan’s Babies.”

Continue reading Austin Ruse's article to find out who the other two of 'Brendan's babies were'. Towards the end of his article the author writes: God sent Brendan a community that is almost like a desert, a community of vast power and fabulous wealth. He was sent to show that all lives are worth living. I believe Brendan is a canonizable saint, that he will become the patron saint of those with intellectual disabilities. There are many stories to tell about Brendan and his almost mystical faith. 

Only the Church will eventually decide if Brendan should be formally recognised as a saint. But his story is for me truly inspiring and uplifting, pointing towards God's personal love for each of us and showing it in the most unexpected ways and through the most unexpected persons.

I recently featured Blessed Carlo Acutis in Sunday Reflections. He died in 2006 at the age of 15, also from leukaemia, dying within a week of it being diagnosed. Last Friday I attended the funeral of Mrs Mary (Hurley) Higgins. I didn't know Mary but I knew her three brothers who became Columban priests, Dermot, Paddy and Gerry, and her sister Catherine who became a Columban Sister. Mary was 92. After the funeral Mass Bishop John Buckley, Bishop Emeritus of Cork and Ross, came to pay his respects. I saw him handing out prayer cards of Blessed Carlo to mourners.

God calls young people, including those with various disabilities, to be saints. Pope St John Paul II emphasised this. Young Brendan Kelly met him in 2001 when he was four, as this article by Al Eisele in HuffPost reports.

Chris Ullman shows the impact that Brendan had on him and his family in Brendan Kelly: A Life that Touched Many Hearts. 

For me one of the most striking things about Blessed Carlo Acutis and Brendan Kelly is their influence on the lives of adults, including their own parents. Chris Ullman highlights this in his article: Imagine that – a father asks me to help keep the spirit of his son alive through a simple song; a son my wife and kids and I never met, but formed a bond with nonetheless, a kid who battled and beat a cruel illness three times until he couldn’t fight any more. He was a child of God who was challenged with Down Syndrome, but who touched many lives: 3,000 people attended his wake.

There is an old expression in the Irish language for a person such as Brendan: Duine le Dia, A Person with God.