(NewsNation) — Two days before Memorial Day 1951, a Catholic priest from Kansas died alone in a North Korean prison camp. Now, 75 years later, Father Emil Kapaun could become America’s first military saint.

Last year, Pope Francis took the first formal step toward making Kapaun a saint, recognizing that he gave his life for his fellow prisoners. The Catholic Church now needs to verify two miracles attributed to him — and if it does, he would be the first American military figure ever canonized.

Kapaun was born in 1916 on a small farm near Wichita, Kansas, to a Catholic Czech family. He was ordained as a priest at 24, served as a chaplain during World War II, and rejoined the Army Chaplain Corps in 1948. In 1950, he was among the first U.S. troops to land on the Korean peninsula, where he became known for running toward the firefights.

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During the Battle of Unsan in November 1950, Kapaun walked through heavy enemy fire to rescue wounded soldiers from no-man’s land. When the non-disabled men were ordered to evacuate, he elected to stay behind, fully aware he would be captured.

Inside the prison camp, he tended to the sick, scoured for food, built fires against guards’ orders, and quietly rejected every theory put forth in the Chinese re-education program. On Easter morning, 1951, he conducted a sunrise service in open defiance of his captors.

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When his health finally failed, guards came to take him to the camp “hospital,” which prisoners knew was simply a place to die. His fellow POWs fought back, but Kapaun stopped them. “Don’t worry about me,” he said. “I’m going where I always wanted to go, and when I get there, I’ll say a prayer for all of you.”

He was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor by President Obama in 2013. His remains, long buried in an unmarked grave, were identified and returned to Kansas in 2021.

The Vatican is now reviewing alleged miracles that could complete his journey from a Kansas farm to the canon of saints.

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