BIDDEFORD — When Father Ron Labarre was just 16 months old, he was with his mother in the family wash room and accidentally ended up in a wash tub full of boiling water.

His mother rushed the badly burnt boy to the former Webber Hospital in Biddeford.

Because of the extent of the burns, “The doctor told her ”˜it’s good you sent for the priest,’” Labarre said Monday as he recounted the story his mother conveyed to him.

Father Zenon Decary, who has since died, arrived at the hospital, looked in on Labarre and told his mother “”˜Fear not.’ He told her I would be fine because God had a purpose for me,” Labarre said. “When my mother turned around, I was asleep and the healing process had begun.”

Labarre said his is just one of the many accounts of healings that people in Biddeford and elsewhere credit to Father Decary.

Many of the accounts are listed in a book about Decary’s life, published in 1948, entitled “The Good Father Zenon,” which is how many people refer to the priest.

The book includes stories of individual healings that people say they experienced or witnessed either through the priest’s direct intercession, or through praying to him.

“People still pray to him today,” said Pat Frechette, and still credit him with healings.

She said she had her own minor healing by the priest when she recently badly burned her finger.

“I prayed to Father Zenon,” said Frechette, and the next morning her finger was unmarred.

Because of his reported healings, his character and his contributions to the community, Father Zenon had a profound effect on the Biddeford community, she said.

That effect has led Frechette, her husband Jerry and a handful of other local people to form the Friends of Father Zenon. The group members want to ensure that Father Zenon’s legacy is remembered.

They are behind an effort to have the holy man canonized.

If successful, Father Zenon would be the first person from Maine to become a saint

“It would put Biddeford on the map,” said Labarre.

The process, which will take many years, is just in the beginning phase.

The group will discuss its efforts on Sunday in greater detail with other members of the Good Shepherd Parish, which includes the Catholic communities in Biddeford, Saco, Old Orchard Beach and Lyman, when the Sacred Heart statue, which Decary bought for parishioners, is rededicated.

The statue was moved last year from its original location at the now-closed St. Andre church on Bacon Street; the church with which the priest had a long history.

Father Zenon was born June 15, 1870; he is originally from St. Laurent in Canada.

The priest first came to Biddeford to become an assistant pastor at St. Andre from 1902-1907.

After leaving Biddeford, he was pastor at Presque Isle, curate at Fort Kent, pastor at Fairfield and pastor in Augusta.

 After becoming ill,  Father Zenon returned to Biddeford to stay with his brother and recuperate. His brother, Monsignor Arthur Decary, was then the pastor at St. Andre.

Father Zenon stayed in Biddeford until he became ill again in October 1939.

He then returned to his family home in Dorval near Montreal, where he died on July 26, 1940.

During his time in Biddeford, Father Zenon, with the assistance of his brother, was responsible for many contributions to the city’s Catholic community.

Father Zenon, who came from a financially well-off family, used many of his own resources to erect a number of facilities in Biddeford.

These included the former St. Andre elementary and high school; the three bells that were purchased from France and erected in the St. Andre Church steeple; the Sacred Heart statue; the now-closed Stella Maris Boarding School for children; the former St. Francis College, now the University of New England; and the St. Andre Home Hospital for unwed mothers.

In addition to is healings and financial contributions to the city, Father Zenon had a holy character, said Frechette.

Frechette is responsible for going through the priest’s personal papers and diaries to translate them and prepare them to be used in the effort to have Father Zenon canonized.

Through her research, she said she has been impressed not just by his healings and financial contributions to the city, but also by his character.

He gave freely to the poor and needy in Biddeford, said Frechette.

He was a very modest man, and he wasn’t interested in material things; even the food he ate was humble, she said.

Frechette recounted a story of a woman bringing beans for Father Zenon’s supper. When she was going to trim them, said Frechette, he told the woman not to bother and he would eat them just as they were.

Then there is the story of the priest’s body after his death.

As per his wishes, Father Zenon was returned to Biddeford to be buried. Both he and his brother are buried at the University of New England.

Philip Roux recounted in a letter that as a boy, he attended the priest’s wake. When he viewed him in his casket “Father Zenon looked more alive then dead,” wrote Roux.

In 1945, Roux was on a crew that moved the casket to a new site on the school’s campus. When they opened it, “Father Zenon’s face and hands looked the same as the day of the wake,” he wrote. He described this event as “a miracle.”

George Bergeron, who has his own story of being healed as a young boy by Father Zenon, said he’s responsible for the effort to get the priest canonized.

 When the bells at St. Andre’s were sold after the church closed in 2010, “I saw everything they had (done) disappearing,” he said. “I said we had to do something.”

Bergeron said he went to Labarre, they got a few others involved, and soon the effort began in earnest.

Frechette, Bergeron, Labarre and the other Friends of Father Zenon said they hope that on Sunday they can attract others to their cause of seeing the priest canonized. They said they hope that one day all of the Catholic community will know of and revere “The Good Father Zenon.”

The rededication of the Sacred Heart statue will take place Sunday at 2 p.m. at Saint Joseph Church on Elm Street in Biddeford. There will be speeches and refreshments.

— Staff Writer Dina Mendros can be contacted at 282-1535, Ext. 324 or dmendros@journaltribune.com.