Religious Community Founder to be Proclaimed a Saint

March 9, 2011 - PRLog -- The Xaverian Missionaries are happy to announce their founder, Blessed Guido Maria Conforti will be made a new saint for the Catholic Church by His Holiness, Pope Benedict XVI on October 23, 2011, in St. Peter’s Basilica, Vatican City.

Born in the diocese of Parma, Italy in 1865, Guido Maria Conforti was ordained a priest in 1888. Health problems prevented him from pursuing the missionary vocation he had felt since his youth, but he was able to found a new Religious missionary congregation in 1895. Blessed Guido Maria Conforti defined the characteristics of his missionary family as: “a spirit of living faith which enables us to see God, to seek God, to love God in all.”
Because he wanted to continue the work of St. Francis Xavier, the patron Saint of the Xaverian Missionaries, China was chosen as the first mission and the first missionaries were sent there in 1899.

Blessed Guido Maria Conforti was consecrated Archbishop of Ravenna, Italy in 1902 and Bishop of Parma, Italy in 1906. Bishop Conforti, himself, visited his missions in China in 1928. However poor health prevented him from an extended stay and he returned to Italy. He died in Parma on Nov. 5, 1931.

After their expulsion from China by the communist government in 1954, the Xaverian Missionaries spread to eighteen other countries around the world in which they continue to serve today.

The process for canonization (official recognition of the person as a “Saint” in the Catholic Church) requires the request by candidate’s local bishop, a biography and writings of the candidate, witness testimonials and verification of two miracles attributed to the candidate.  Bishop Evasto Colli, Conforti’s successor in Parma, saw the first signs of sanctity and began the process which led to Conforti’s beatification on March 17, 1996 in St. Peter’s Basilica in the presence of Pope John Paul II. The first miracle attributed to Blessed Conforti came in 1965 with the cure of 12 year old Sabina Kamariza from pancreatic cancer after prayers for his intercession from the Xaverian Sisters in Burundi, Africa. The second miracle needed for canonization occurred in August 2003 in Brazil when the family and parish community of a premature newborn prayed a novena to Blessed Conforti  to save the baby from complications caused by prolonged cardio-respiratory arrest due to his premature birth.  A medical council concluded that little Thiago Joào’s sudden recovery was scientifically unexplainable. On April 23, 2010, the College of Theologians identified the cure as “the miraculous intervention of God through the intercession of Blessed Conforti.”

“Go and preach the universal brotherhood proclaimed by Christ, which is destined to demolish all barriers and make a single family of all peoples without destroying our nationalities and respective rights…” (Bishop Guido Maria Conforti, Address to departing missionaries, 1924)

Eight hundred Xaverian missionaries currently serve in: Bangladesh, Burundi, Brazil, Cameroon, Chad, Columbia, Dem. Republic of Congo, Great Britain, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Mozambique, Philippines, Sierra Leone, Spain, Taiwan, and the USA .

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About the Xaverian Missionaries: “We share the Love of Christ with people across different faiths and cultures, by proclaiming the Good News of Jesus in new Christian churches. Inspired by St. Francis Xavier and Blessed Guido M. Conforti, we are a Catholic religious community committed to serving God in the poor.”