North American Sanctity: Blessed Francis Xavier Seelos

“O help! O help! O holy Mother of God, let me become so inflamed and sanctified that I am not always thinking of breakfast.”

Welcome to "North American Sanctity," a series on holy men and women, boys and girls, saints and those on the road to sainthood, from Canada, the United States, and Mexico. Some will be familiar, others less so; but all are inspiring!

By Kimberly Bruce

Blessed Francis Xavier Seelos (feast day: Oct. 5) was a 19th-century priest who travelled the United States preaching, hearing confessions, and calling all to spiritual renewal, much like the tent revivals of the 20th century.

With his down-to-earth nature, sense of humor, and kindness, he was a magnet for getting people in the door to church and inspiring them to repentance.

“May the new blessed also encourage you to risk the adventure of faith,” said Pope St. John Paul II at the 2000 beatification Mass.

Redemptorist priest
From a very early age, Francis knew that he wanted to be a priest. Born in Füssen in Bavaria, Germany on Jan. 11, 1819, he was one of 12 children.

After completing his primary education in 1839, Francis went on to study theology and philosophy and completed a year in seminary before journeying to America to join the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer (the Redemptorists) in 1843. 

Before joining the Redemptorists, Francis had a dream. He saw himself as a priest upon the altar, ready to give the Holy Eucharist to his congregation, when he looked up and saw an “unusually attractive” young woman. He later told his brother, “Last night the Blessed Mother appeared to me. I have to be a missionary.”

Francis was drawn to the Redemptorists’ charism of missionary work, particularly amongst German immigrants in the United States, as well as their apostolic zeal and joyfulness.

Ordained a priest at St. James Church in Baltimore, Maryland on Dec. 22, 1844, Fr. Seelos’ first assignment was at St. Philomena Parish in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He became assistant to his superior, Fr. (and future saint) John Neumann, whom he served for the next six years until becoming superior and novice master himself.

Grow in holiness
During his time at St. Philomena’s, Fr. Seelos made a commitment to grow in holiness while attending a retreat. Four days into the retreat, however, desiring to overcome “the repugnance of nature,” as he described it, he wrote in his prayer journal: “O help! O help! O holy Mother of God, let me become so inflamed and sanctified that I am not always thinking of breakfast.”

In 1852, Father Seelos became a U.S. citizen. He then went on to serve in several other parishes in Maryland until he was made superior and prefect of students at the Redemptorist seminary in Cumberland. Father Michael Muller, his predecessor, had been removed because of criticisms concerning his manner.

Seminary superior
Father Seelos shined in this position. He was loved by the students, and in only a few months the population of seminarians doubled.

In 1860, Fr. Seelos was recommended by Bishop Michael O’Connor of Pittsburgh to be his successor. Father Seelos promptly wrote Bl. Pope Pius IX telling him why he should not be appointed, and was overjoyed when not picked as the bishop’s successor.

Troubles arose for Fr. Seelos in 1862 when Fr. Muller, the priest he had replaced at the seminary, wrote grossly inaccurate and vindictive letters about him to their general superior in Rome. This resulted in Fr. Seelos’ removal from his much-loved position.

Father Seelos’ words, written in one of his letters held in the archives of the Baltimore Province, gives us a glimpse into his guiding principle in times of suffering:

Love of creatures must be subordinated to the love of God, whom one is pledged to love above all things. Time, in which we have found nothing to offer up to God, is lost for eternity … if it is suffering, temptations, difficulties with our fellowmen—everything we can present to God as an offering and can, through them, become like Jesus his Son. Where the sacrifice is great and manifold, there, in the same proportion, is the hope of glory more deeply and more securely grounded in the heart of him who makes it.

Saint Faustina noted something similar in her Diary:

Great love can change small things into great ones, and it is only love which lends value to our actions. And the purer our love becomes, the less there will be within us for the flames of suffering to feed upon, and the suffering will cease to be a suffering for us; it will become a delight! By the grace of God, I have received such a disposition of heart that I am never so happy as when I suffer for Jesus, whom I love with every beat of my heart (Diary of Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska, 303).

At the outset of the Civil War in 1863, Fr. Seelos met with President Abraham Lincoln to persuade him to exempt Redemptorist seminarians from military service. There was a need for priests, and they had to be able to continue with their studies. None of the seminarians ended up having to go off to war. 

Traveling missionary
Father would next begin the most fulfilling work of his priesthood. He became a traveling missionary in the U.S. in September 1863, and wrote his sister: “I love the mission more than anything else. It is properly the work of the vineyard of the Lord.”

In true Fr. Seelos fashion, he connected with everyone on the mission trail and was loved by all. Said Fr. Francis van Emstede, one of his superiors:

Fr. Seelos did everything willingly and cheerfully; that at all times he showed such a childlike and pious joyfulness and knew how to entertain everyone in his presence in a kindly way. His look was piety, his glance was comfort, his expression love; charity glistened in his eyes, and benevolence played around his venerable aspect.

Near the end of his life, Fr. Seelos predicted his own death. After transferring to St. Mary of the Assumption Parish in New Orleans, Louisiana, in September 1866, he told a nun he would only be there “a year and then I will die of yellow fever.”

He died one year later from yellow fever on Oct. 4, 1867, at the age of 48.

The National Shrine of Blessed Francis Xavier Seelos was established by the Redemptorist Fathers and Brothers in 1959 at St. Mary’s Assumption Church in New Orleans where Bl. Francis is buried. 

Blessed Francis Xavier Seelos, pray for us!

Next in the series: Saint Marguerite d’Youville, Oct. 16.
Previous article

MKST

You might also like...

May we be men and women of great prayer and service, as St. Martin of Tours was, whose feast we celebrate Nov. 11 - coincidentally, Veterans Day.

Saint Leo the Great, Pope and Doctor of the Church (feast day: Nov. 10), boldly faced down Attila the Hun and his troops as they prepared to sack Rome in 452 A.D.

Pope St. John Paul II called Blessed John Duns Scotus (feast day: Nov. 8) the “Minstrel of the Word Incarnate” and “Defender of Mary’s Immaculate Conception.”