Francis Xavier Seelos was born on January 11, 1819 in Füssen, Bavaria, Germany and entered the diocesan seminary in 1842.
Soon after meeting the missionaries of the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer, founded for the evangelisation of the most abandoned, he decided to enter the congregation and to minister to the German speaking immigrants in the United States. He was accepted by the Congregation on November 22, 1842, and sailed the following year from Le Havre, France arriving in New York on April 20, 1843.
His life was spent in pastoral ministry and became known as a priest who was readily available to his people and always concerned for the poorest and the most abandoned. In September 1867, exhausted from visiting and caring for the victims of Yellow Fever, he contracted the disease and died on October 4th 1867.
His Holiness Pope John Paul II, proclaimed Father Seelos Blessed in St. Peter’s Square on April 9th 2000.
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