At New Orleans in Louisiana, in the United States of America, Blessed Francis Xavier Seelos, priest of the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer, who, a native of Bavaria, was tirelessly devoted to the needs of children, young people, and migrants.
Lifespan: 1819–1867
Beatified: 9 April 2000 by Pope John Paul II
Memoria liturgica: 4 October
O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth shall declare your praise.
Ps. 51:15
Francis Xavier Seelos was born on 11 January 1819 in Füssen, Germany. In 1842, after completing his studies in Philosophy, he entered the diocesan seminary and subsequently decided to join the missionaries of the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer, in order to help and evangelize the less fortunate.
Faithful to the spirit and charism of the Redemptorist Congregation to which he belonged, Father Francis left his native Bavaria and gave himself generously and joyfully to the missionary apostolate among immigrant communities in the United States.
In the various places where he worked, he brought his enthusiasm, spirit of sacrifice, and apostolic zeal. To the abandoned and the lost he preached the message of Jesus Christ, “the source of eternal salvation” (Heb. 5:9), and in the hours spent in the confessional he persuaded many to return to God.
In 1866 he contracted yellow fever and, after a prolonged Calvary, died on 4 October 1867, not yet fifty years old.