Franz Xaver Seelos

Franz Xaver Seelos

Francis Xavier Seelos (* 11. January 1819 in feet ; † 4. October 1867 in New Orleans ) was a German Redemptorists - missionaries , who in 1843 in the United States emigrated and there until his death worked. On April 9, 2000, he was beatified by Pope John Paul II . His feast day is October 5th.

Life

The Seelos memorial in the Sankt Mang monastery (Füssen)

As the son of the sexton of the Church of St. Mang , the young Franz Xaver felt the desire to become a priest at an early age . After attending primary school in Füssen, he attended the St. Stephan Benedictine High School in Augsburg for seven years . After graduating from high school, he studied philosophy and theology at the University of Munich from 1839 . After joining the Redemptorists , he emigrated to the United States in 1843 , where he began the Redemptorist Novitiate in Maryland .

He was ordained a priest in 1844 in St. James Church in Baltimore, Maryland . In the following nine years he worked in the parish of St. Philomena in Pittsburgh ( Pennsylvania ) as vicar of St. John Neumann later than Superior , novice master and pastor. In 1854 he was transferred from Pittsburgh to Baltimore. In 1857 he became a pastor in Cumberland, Maryland , where he confessed several hours a day . In 1862 he worked in Annapolis as a parish chaplain and student prefect.

After new military service laws were enacted in 1863, Pastor Seelos turned to US President Abraham Lincoln and successfully asked him to exempt the students of his congregation from military service . After his dismissal as prefect in 1863, he worked as a charismatic missionary in the people's mission in over ten US states until 1866 . In 1866 he was transferred to New Orleans.

Franz Xaver Seelos died on October 4, 1867 in New Orleans ; he had contracted this deadly disease himself while caring for yellow fever sufferers.

literature

• Otto Weiß :  Seelos, Franz Xaver. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 9, Bautz, Herzberg 1995, ISBN 3-88309-058-1 , Sp. 1311-1313.

Web links

• Literature by and about Franz Xaver Seelos in the catalog of the German National Library
• Fr Franz Xaver Seelos, a blessed of our days from Füssen - (parish community Füssen)
• Memories of Seelos' beatification - (Parish community Füssen)
• Blessed Franz Xaver Seelos - (Redemptoristen.org)
• Franz Xaver Seelos - (Lexicon of Saints)
• Franz Xaver Seelos - ( Vatican )
• Seelos-Center - Seelos.org (English)
• Blessed Seelos Pages - St Mang Basilica Füssen German Website (English)