Lt. Fr. Joseph "Verbis" Lafleur

Lafleur's war began at Clark Field, where Japanese bombers struck on December 8, 1941 and he tended the wounded and anointed the dying. As a prisoner after Corregidor fell in May 1942, he gave away his food and malaria pills, took hard labor so others could rest, and was beaten for entering infirmaries. In September 1944 he swapped places to join the draft sent aboard the Shinyo Maru, which a U.S. submarine torpedoed; only 83 of 750 prisoners lived. The Diocese of Lafayette opened his cause for sainthood in 2020.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Le Vieux Village and the Venus House — 0.9 mi
  A heritage park in Opelousas built around the Venus House of about 1791, the home of a free Creole woman of color, Marie Francois Venus, with an old schoolhouse, Methodist church and the visitor center's zydeco music exhibit.
• Prairie Acadian Cultural Center — 21 mi
  A National Park Service center in Eunice on the Cajun prairie, with exhibits on the Acadians who settled the prairies, a Courir de Mardi Gras display, free music and cooking demonstrations, and the shuttered Liberty Theatre nearby.
• Vermilionville — 23 mi
  A living-history village of about 23 acres on Bayou Vermilion in Lafayette, opened in 1990 to interpret the Native peoples, Acadians, Creoles and people of African descent of the Attakapas region.
• Atchafalaya Welcome Center — 25 mi
  A state welcome center inside the Atchafalaya Basin, the nation's largest river swamp, with exhibits on Basin history and life, a film, a crawfishing boat and French-speaking staff.

More markers nearby

• St. Landry Catholic Church — steps away
• Opelousas Catholic School — steps away
• Black Academy At Mt. Olive Baptist Church — 0.2 mi
• Lawyers Row — 0.7 mi