5 October 2020
Memorial of Bl. Francis Xavier Seelos, Priest
Bl. Francis Xavier Seelos offers us concrete examples of reliance on the Lord who cares for us, and allowing the Lord to bear good fruit through us. Born in Germany in 1819, he joined the Redemptorists and came to America in 1843 to minister to the German-speaking immigrants who were in great need of priests. Ordained in Baltimore in 1844, he served in Pittsburgh, Cumberland, Annapolis, and Detroit. After preaching parish missions throughout New England and the Mid Western US, he was sent to New Orleans in 1866. Around the time Seelos began his second year of ministry in New Orleans, a pandemic of yellow fever swept through Texas and Louisiana. Seeing those people whom he had come to serve now sick and dying, Bl. Francis spent himself in visiting and caring for those suffering from the pandemic, and eventually contracted the fatal disease himself. He died in 1867 at the age of 48.
St. Paul writes to the Galatians that the Gospel he preached was “not of human origin, … but it came through a revelation of Jesus Christ.” (Gal 1:11-12) Bl. Francis could have remained in Germany, he could have asked to stay in one city in the US, he could have insisted that one parish was sufficient for his missionary efforts, and he could have asked to not be sent to New Orleans where yellow fever had been before, and was likely to revive in his days. But a divine call had been given him. Such was the nature of the joy which the Gospel of Christ Jesus poured into Bl. Francis Xavier Seelos, that wherever there was greater need, he would cheerfully go and serve. If that meant crossing oceans, moving cities with short notice, preaching in his second language across so many states, and laying down his life in efforts to bring consolation to the suffering: then that is what Seelos sought to do. Like the Samaritan in Christ’s parable, he did not think about the inconveniences and cost to himself of caring for others. Instead, he allowed the care and love of Christ, planted in his heart, to reach out and to spread the holiness of charity all throughout these United States. By the intercession of Bl. Francis Xavier Seelos may we too know the joy of relying on Christ to live out the desires for heroic charity which Jesus plants in us today.