Rockville School Celebrates Medal of Honor Recipient, Push for Sainthood

At the Shrine of St. Jude in Rockville, an olive-colored Jeep will serve as the altar for Thursday for an outdoor mass honoring the late Rev. Emil Kapaun, an Army chaplain during the Korean War whose cause for Sainthood is being considered by the Vatican.

The mass is scheduled for 10 a.m. in the main parking lot of St. Jude Regional Catholic School, 820 Walbridge St., the Archdiocese of Washington announced Monday.

A push for sainthood was opened for Kapaun, a Kansas native, after many fellow prisoners of war detailed his ministerial acts. Accounts say the chaplain endured enemy fire and hand-to-hand combat to provide medical aid and Last Rites to the wounded at Unisan in November 1950, when Chinese Communist forces attacked his unit.

According to the Department of Defense, Kapaun died in a prisoner of war camp on May 23, 1951. His remains were never recovered. He was 35.

In April, Kapaun was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor at the White House for his heroism. 

He was also inducted into the Hall of Heroes at the Pentagon.