“This is how I remember the finest man I ever knew”: War Commemoration, the Politics of Healing, and the Miraculous in the Cause of Emil Kapaun

U.S. Army chaplain Father Emil J. Kapaun died a prisoner in Korea in 1951. Today, the Catholic Church recognizes him as a Servant of God—a step along the path to sainthood. His sainthood cause is one example of a turn within American devotionalism toward honoring chaplains. Saint-making happens via practices of public remembering; in Kapaun’s case, Catholics remember his work alongside non-Catholic veterans and with support from the U.S. military. Kapaun is remembered as a healer who nursed the damaged bodies of his comrades. These remembrances have always been innovative and retrospective, engaging a changing present along with the past. For ex-POWs who told Kapaun’s story when they returned from Korea, memories of his healing work contributed to a public history of war that eased their homecomings. Later, Kapaun commemoration happened as an extension of Reagan-era initiatives to honor veterans. Kapaun memorials participated in a post-Vietnam “politics of healing” which obscured the memory of political dissent, replacing it with sentimental models for imagining war. Today Kapaun’s reputation as a wartime healer mingles with his reputation as a saint with intercessory power to heal. The article concludes with a reflection on the relationship between remembered healer and present healer, between commemoration and the supernatural.