Blessed Seelos

Today is the memorial of Blessed Francis Xavier Seelos, a Redemptorist who served in many places, ending up in New Orleans, where he died of yellow fever.

Many years ago, we visited his shrine in New Orleans. Below are some excerpts from my blog posts, which are no longer live, and some reflections on his life, which seems, if you think about it, doesn’t seem super static and in fact involves quite a lot of movement.

Faithful to the Redemptorist charism, he practiced a simple lifestyle and a simple manner of expressing himself. The themes of his preaching, rich in biblical content, were always heard and understood even by everyone, regardless of education, culture, or background. A constant endeavor in this pastoral activity was instructing the little children in the faith. He not only favored this ministry, he held it as fundamental for the growth of the Christian community in the parish. In 1854, he was transferred from Pittsburgh, to Baltimore, then Cumberland in 1857, and to Annapolis (1862), all the while engaged in parish ministry and serving in the formation of future Redemptorists as Prefect of Students…

In 1860 he was proposed as a candidate for the office of Bishop of Pittsburgh. Having been excused from this responsibility by Pope Pius IX, from 1863 until 1866 he dedicated himself to the life of an itinerant missionary preaching in English and German in the states of Connecticut, Illinois, Michigan, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Wisconsin.

After a brief period of parish ministry in Detroit, Michigan, he was assigned in 1866 to the Redemptorist community in New Orleans, Louisiana. Here also, as pastor of the Church of St. Mary of the Assumption, he was known as a pastor who was joyously available to his faithful and singularly concerned for the poorest and the most abandoned. In God’s plan, however, his ministry in New Orleans was destined to be brief. In the month of September, exhausted from visiting and caring for the victims of yellow fever, he contracted the dreaded disease. After several weeks of patiently enduring his illness, he passed on to eternal life on October 4, 1867, at the age of 48 years and 9 months.

So, to the shrine, way back in 2010 (so my observations about the minor challenges of the visit might no longer apply):

The Blessed Seelos shrine is nicely done, although, like a lot of smaller Catholic shrines I’ve visited, you sort of have to work at seeing it and would be well-advised to study up on when and where and how before you attempt it. The Center itself, a building beside the church, is locked, and you must ring the bell to be let in. Then there’s a room to the left, the doors to which are also normally closed (although not locked) and the lights off, which contains the exhibit about Fr. Seelos’ life. As I mentioned, the church itself isn’t open except during Mass, but the shrine at the rear of the church containing Blessed Seelos’ remains (disinterred from his first casket and reinterred in a church-shaped reliquary containing what is left of his body “in a baby’s casket” (the words of the guide) – except for his breastbone, which is displayed in a reliquary to the side.

I didn’t much like this element of the exhibit room, though – you come around a corner in the small room and are greeted with this life-sized re-enactment of Fr. Seelos’ death from yellow fever. It gave us a bit of a start, as they say.

This statue of Our Lady of Sorrows was at the shrine. It was blessed by Fr Seelos. A nice antidote to the Mannequins of Death. I find it really lovely