Servant of God Francis Xavier Ford

Francis Xavier Ford, MM (January 11, 1892 - February 21, 1952) was an American Catholic prelate who served as Bishop of Kaying from 1946 until his death in 1952. He was a member of the Maryknoll Missionaries in China. Because of his torture by the Communist regime and death in prison, he is considered a martyr. His cause for his canonization has begun, granting him the religious title of Servant of God. Ford was born in Brooklyn, New York, the son of Austin Brendan Ford and Elizabeth Rellihan Ford. He attended Cathedral College in Manhattan. While studying there, he felt a call to respond to the Catholic Foreign Mission Society of America's vision, just founded in 1911 by the Catholic bishops of the United States for overseas service. Upon completion of his high school studies, he was accepted by the Society. When Ford reported to the Maryknoll seminary in Ossining, New York, on 14 September 1912, he became the first student of the fledgling Maryknoll Society. He was the first person to matriculate in this institution. He was ordained on December 5, 1917, and became one of the first four American Catholic priests to arrive in China in 1918. In 1918 Ford began to serve in the province of Canton (Guangdong), in southern China, and in 1921 opened the first Maryknoll mission in China. He was named Prefect Apostolic of a new mission in Kaying (Meizhou) in northern Guangdong in 1925. The Prefecture was raised to the status of a Vicariate Apostolic in 1935, with Ford named as Vicar Apostolic, for which he was appointed the titular bishop of Etenna. He was consecrated a bishop by James Anthony Walsh, the Superior General of the Maryknoll Society, on September 21, 1935. During twenty years of serving in Kaying, Ford increased his flock from 9,000 to 20,000 and built schools, hostels, and churches.