Brother James Miller was shot and killed on Feb. 13, 1982 while working outside the De La Salle Casa Indigena in Guatemala.

During Saint Mary’s University’s Lasallian Week of Peace, Brother Paul Joslin presented “Witnessing to Nonviolence." Nearly 150 people came to commemorate the loss of Brother James Miller. Joslin shared an intensely personal story to spread a message of love and nonviolence to the Saint Mary's University students and community members in attendance.

Miller and Joslin were working together with a group of seven brothers that helped young men in Guatemala enhance their education at the Casa Indigena in the early 1980s.

Joslin said that on Sunday mornings the young men would go to the market. The army would also go to the market and recruit oftentimes unwilling young men.

“They would just approach young men, often times from their back, [and] just lift them by their elbows and lift them right into an army truck and say, ‘now you are recruited,’” said Joslin.

One of the young men from Joslin’s group was taken.

Joslin attempted to get his member back by presenting documents that stated the young man was enrolled in school. The army was still resistant to let him go, according to Joslin.

“I had gone to the army base three times in less than two weeks,” said Joslin.

The army sent the brothers a message telling them not to come anymore.

“We thought that maybe a car might be damaged or a building might be damaged,” said Joslin. “We knew that we could not turn to anybody. They are the source of the problem.”

Joslin said the brothers were all concerned for one another’s safety but they wanted to remain in Guatemala.

They planned to remain inside as much as possible and inform one another where they would be at all times.

In the morning of Feb. 13, 1982, Miller told Joslin he would be with his group celebrating friendship day, similar to Valentine’s Day.

“That ended up being the last time we talked to one another,” said Joslin.

Later that day, Miller was patching a wall outside the Casa Indigena. Three men with guns came by and shot Miller.

“By the time he hit the ground, he was dead,” said Joslin. “The hat that he was wearing was on the ground and when I picked it up it was still full of sweat, it was as if he was still alive. It was just a horrible, horrible shock to me and to the brothers.”

Miller’s cousin, Jane Campbell, attended the presentation and oftentimes turned a locket with Miller’s photo and a lock of his hair inside, as Joslin shared his story. The audience seemed to feel a deeper connection to her and the story when she displayed the locket and its meaning to her at the presentation.

The Casa Indigina has been renamed Casa Miller in Miller’s honor.