Saint Guido Maria Conforti

Guido Maria Conforti (30 March 1865 – 5 November 1931) was an Italian Roman Catholic archbishop who founded the Xaverian Missionaries (S.X.) on 3 December 1895. He was known to make frequent visits to his parishes and worked to support the religious education and religious involvement among the youth. Pope John Paul II beatified him in 1996 and he was canonized in 2011 by Pope Benedict XVI. Guido Maria Conforti was born in Casalora di Ravadese in the diocese and province of Parma, Italy, in 1865, the eighth of ten children of Rinaldo and Antonia Adorni Conforti. He attended an elementary school run by the De La Salle Brothers from 1872 and each day on his way to the school he would stop by the church of Santa Maria della Pace, his parish church, where he used to have conversations with the crucified Jesus Christ. This was when his vocation became apparent. He later recalled: "I looked at Him and He looked at me and seemed to say so many things". Although his father would have preferred that he stay and manage the farm, Conforti enrolled in the seminary in Parma in November 1876. He began reading the works of Francis Xavier which inspired a desire to be a missionary, but his requests to join the Society of Jesus or the Salesians of Saint John Bosco were denied. At the time, the rector of the seminary was Andrea Carlo Ferrari, future cardinal and Blessed. Ferrari became his mentor. Conforti was appointed vice-rector. Conforti was ordained to the priesthood on 22 September 1888 at Fontanellato. Conforti then served as a professor at the local seminary. He became the Vicar-General of the Diocese of Parma on 7 March 1896. Conforti established the Xaverian Missionaries on 3 December 1895 and the organization received the approval of Pope Leo XIII on 3 December 1898. In 1899, he sent the order's first missionaries to China. Leo XIII appointed him Archbishop of Ravenna in May 1902 following the death of Cardinal Agostino Gaetano Riboldi.