by: Norman Fulkerson
Monday, November 19, 2018, might
have seemed like a normal day for Jamie Schmidt. Little did she know when she
entered Catholic Supply, a religious
goods store in suburban St. Louis, Missouri ,
that this ordinary day would be her last. Nor did her family ever dream her
life would come to a heroic end with her being compared to Saint Maria Goretti.[1]
* * *
In many ways, 53-year-old Jamie
Schmidt could be considered an average Catholic lady, which only serves to make
her final moments more outstanding. She was a mother of three who married her
high school sweetheart. She sang in the choir at her parish
Church , St. Anthony of Padua in High
Ridge , Missouri
We know this because her reason
for stopping at Catholic Supply was
to purchase material for her rosary-making apostolate. There were only two
other people in the store—both female employees—at the time of her arrival at
3:30 in the afternoon.
Moments later, Thomas Bruce entered.
He looked around a bit then explained he was going to make a purchase but
needed to get a credit card from his car. When he returned, he had a gun, and
the three women were faced with their worst nightmare.
“In the Name of God…”
After forcing the ladies into a
corner of the store, he proceeded to sexually assault the two employees. He
then turned the gun on Jamie with the intention of doing the same to her, but
she had other plans.
What happened next was an act
of Christian testimony one would only expect to find among early Church martyrs
in the Roman Coliseum, not from a twenty-first-century Catholic lady in a modern
American city.
Thomas Bruce turned to Jamie and
from what we know of the exchange that followed, ordered her to disrobe. In
such a situation, she could have responded in a way that might pacify her
assailant. One can only speculate as to what was going through her head at that
critical moment.
However, when one considers the
perverse acts she was forced to witness, it is likely Jamie understood there
would be no reasoning with such a man. The thought also might have occurred to
her that God had placed her in that situation because He wanted to test her
fidelity to Him. While this is pure conjecture, her categorical response, as
recounted by the two employees, is a documented fact.
“In the name of God,” she said,
“I will not take my clothes off!” Using that type of phraseology was the
equivalent to taking an oath before her Creator. It was thus an unequivocal,
categorical, no, an absolute refusal
to a man with a loaded gun who was clearly not going to accept opposition.
A Glorious End
Sadly the outcome was what one
would expect under the circumstances. She was shot at point-blank range. As she
lay mortally wounded on the floor, for what would turn out to be her last
moments on Earth, she was in need of immediate spiritual strength and touchingly
turned to God. As life drained from her body, the two employees could hear her murmuring
the Our Father, the prayer composed
by Our Lord Himself, in a faint voice.
The assailant fled the scene
but was later apprehended. Jamie lived long enough to be taken by ambulance to
a nearby hospital. However, she did not cease praying and with her dying breath
was heard whispering that same prayer as her short life came to a glorious end.
It would be reasonable for a
person who relishes the memory of this brave lady’s heroic sacrifice to ask,
why does such a story move us so much? It is because what we see with Jamie’s heroic
defense of purity is the overarching luminosity of that which was best in her: honor.[2]
A World That Is Devastated and Without Honor
This forgotten quality has several
defining characteristics. First of all, it is the virtue whereby we esteem that
which is excellent. This is not a difficult thing to do in the soul-stirring
case of a Catholic wife and mother who looks down the barrel of a loaded gun
and unhesitatingly chooses death to dishonor.
Secondly, honor is also the
quality that drives a person to live up to that excellence in all things. For
example, those who care about their honor will not only maintain their purity, they will also seek to
practice all virtues because of the
love of principle, whether it is convenient to do so or not.
Finally, there are moments in a
person’s life that could be defined as an “H-hour” or the all-or-nothing
moment. It is a circumstance that asks a person to go above and beyond what
they, or anyone who knows them, think they are capable of achieving. When
faithful in those moments, the fullness of honor is seen, and along with it, a
series of other qualities and virtues appear in the background, as it were,
like an angel.
It is for this reason that
Jamie’s heroism is particularly refreshing. The days we live in are not much
different from the world defined in the Book of Maccabees as being “devastated
and without honor.” Therefore, it is in licentious and self-centered days like our
own that honor has more brilliance for the simple fact that it stands in stark
contrast to the decadence that surrounds us.
Bypassing the Pleasures of Life to Do God’s Will
Sadly there are those who, upon
hearing Jamie’s story will callously ask, “What was it all worth?” She missed
the opportunity to enjoy Thanksgiving with her family and the joyous season of
Christmas. She will not see her children grow old nor will she ever be able to
caress her grandchildren. While these heart-wrenching considerations are
legitimate, especially for mothers reading this article, the all-important
lesson of Jamie’s life could be lost. Her final words, while succinct, were at
the same time a manifesto on the obligation
we all have of being faithful to God’s will no matter how painful it may be.
However, there are those who
will discard such reflections and look upon Jamie as the defeated one who lost
out on life’s pleasures. We can thus contrast this attitude with that found in the
poignant letter of French King Francis I to his mother after suffering a crushing
defeat during the Battle of Pavia in 1525. He had lost militarily but
maintained that which he considered most precious.
What the king reputedly said in
that letter can be aptly applied to the unforgettable Jamie Schmidt. From the
place in eternity she now occupies, Jamie can justly say to those she left
behind, “All is lost, save honor.”
[2] The
concepts of Honor given here were developed by Prof. Plinio
Corrêa de Oliveira in a series of meetings on the subject given in 1976. He
was able to make voluminous commentaries on this subject because he was, in a
very eminent way, a man of honor.
