Daniel was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Blois, France, in 1899, then taught school for three years. But the foreign missions beckoned. He joined the Congregation of the Holy Spirit and served eight years in West Africa. For health reasons he returned to France, where he raised money for a new cathedral in Dakar, Senegal. During World War I he volunteered as a chaplain and spent 52 months at the front without being wounded. From 1923 until the end of his life, he helped restore and run an orphanage in a Paris suburb. He was beatified in 1984, and is the patron of orphans and abandoned children. Daniel ministered always under the protection of St. Therese of Lisieux.