Visiting Clergyman Dies as Fire Guts Building at Catholic Shrine

A predawn fire destroyed a historic stone building at a Roman Catholic shrine Friday, killing a visiting clergyman from England.

Nearly two dozen other occupants escaped the fire, which apparently started in the clergyman’s third-floor bedroom at the LaSalette Shrine around 4 a.m., investigators said. One firefighter was injured.

Fire Chief Ronald Churchill said firefighters spotted the badly burned body of a man kneeling, but were unable to save him before the building began collapsing around them. His name was not released.

The cause of the fire has not been determined.

“I heard someone scream, ‘Fire! Fire! Fire!’ When I got out of my room, I smelled smoke,” said Father Andre Patenaude, who has lived in the building for 11 years. “I just can’t believe . . . the whole thing is gone. It’s just devastating.”

The Missionaries of Our Lady of LaSalette is a Catholic order of priests and brothers with about 900 members worldwide.

The building housed business offices and living quarters for priests, as well religious personnel visiting for the shrine’s “Sabbath Program” retreat, a 14-week counseling program.

The order believes the Virgin Mary appeared to children in LaSalette, France, in 1846. Missionaries came to the United States from France in 1892 and settled in Hartford, Conn.