Blessed Francis Xavier Seelos

Francis Xavier Seelos, C.Ss.R., (January 11, 1819 – October 4, 1867) was a German Redemptorist who worked as a missionary in the United States frontier. Towards the end of his life, he went to New Orleans to minister to victims of yellow fever. He then died after contracting the disease. Seelos was born in Füssen in the Kingdom of Bavaria on January 11, 1819, one of 12 children born to Mang Seelos and Franziska Schwarzenbach. He was baptized that same day in the Parish Church of St. Mang. He attended middle school at the Institute of Saint Stephen in Augsburg. Receiving his diploma in 1839, he went on to university in Munich, where he completed his philosophy studies. Having expressed a desire for the priesthood since childhood, he entered the diocesan seminary on September 19, 1842. Seelos was touched by the letters published in the Catholic newspaper Sion, from the Redemptorist missionaries describing the lack of spiritual care for the thousands of German-speaking immigrants. After visiting the Redemptorists in Altötting, he decided to enter the congregation, asking to work as a missionary in the United States. He was accepted by the Redemptorists on November 22, 1842, and sailed the following year from Le Havre, France, on March 17, arriving in New York on April 20, 1843. On December 22, 1844, after having completed his novitiate and theological studies, Seelos was ordained a priest in the Redemptorist Church of St. James in Baltimore, Maryland. After being ordained, Seelos worked for nine years in the Parish of St. Philomena in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania—first as curate to St. John Neumann, who was the superior of the Redemptorist community, later as Superior himself, and for three years as pastor. During this time, he was also the Redemptorist Novice master. With Neumann, he also dedicated himself to preaching missions.