BL. FRANCIS XAVIER SEELOS - 5 OCTOBER

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN OCTOBER

Saints celebrated on the 5th of October

WELCOME!

BLESSED FRANCIS XAVIER SEELOS 

Born at Füssen, Bavaria, January 11, 1819; died at New Orleans, Louisiana, October 4, 1867. 

When a child, asked by his mother what he intended to be, he pointed to the picture of his patron, St Francis Xavier, and said: "I’m going to be another Saint Francis." 

He pursued his studies in Augsburg and Munich, and entered the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer, offering himself for the American Mission; he arrived in America on April 17, 1843. 

That following year, May 16, 1844, he made his religious profession at the Redemptorist novitiate, Baltimore, and seven months later he was ordained by Archbishop Eccleston of Baltimore. 

He was assigned to St James, Baltimore. In May 1845, he was sent to Pittsburg, where he had as superior [Saint] John Neumann. 

In 1851 Father Seelos was appointed superior of the Pittsburg community, where he laboured untiringly for nine years. His confessional was constantly besieged by crowds of people of every description and class. It was said by many that he could read their very souls. 

From Pittsburg, he was transferred to St Alphonsus’s, Baltimore, where he fell dangerously ill. On his recovery he was appointed prefect (spiritual director) of the professed students, and he succeeded in winning the love an esteem of all who were privileged to be under his spiritual guidance. 

In 1860 his name was proposed for the vacant Holy See of Pittsburg, but humbly refused the honour. The year 1862 found him again at mission work. In 1866 he was summoned to Detroit, and in September of the same year to New Orleans, Louisiana. The cause of his beatification is in progress.

[Source: Catholic Encyclopedia, 1913. - Pope John Paul II  beatified Father Seelos on the 9th of April 2000. Father Seelos is invoked against cancer, also for inoperable cases.]

PRAYER:

Grant, we beseech you, almighty God, that the venerable feast of Blessed Francis Xavier Seelos may increase our devotion and promote our salvation. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.