St. Francis Solanus (Apostle to South America)
St. Francis Solanus
lived from 1549 to 1610. He was a
Spanish Franciscan missionary to South America.
St. Francis is not well-known in the United States, he is indeed to be classified
among the extraordinary saints. St.
Francis was gifted with an abundance of miracles. St. Francis converted and baptized many
natives and explored uncultivated regions.
A Prayer to St. Francis of the Catholic Church.
The Prayer to St. Francis:
“O powerful St. Francis Solanus,
thou who explored and evangelized in the wilds of South America, please assist
me in the wilds of this world and obtain for me, through our Lord Jesus Christ,
the grace I ask of thee. Amen.”
(Specify your petition and then say
one Hail Mary in honor of St. Francis Solanus)
St.
Francis Solanus miraculously heals the mangled face of a five-year-old girl and
raises her to life:
“…the five year-old Maria Monroy had fallen from the second story of her
parents’ home. An iron latticework,
which she had dragged down with her in the fall, had put out one of the nina’s
eyes, destroyed her face, and split her skull. When picked up, she was dead. The desperate screams of the grief-crazed
mother immediately brought the entire neighborhood to the scene; but nothing
anyone could do or say served to console the woman or assuage the shock
incurred when she had first glimpsed the ruin of her baby’s head and
features.
“Above the bed of the dead child there hung a likeness of Fray Francisco
[St. Francis Solanus]. Only when the
mother’s eyes lifted to this picture was she somewhat calmed. Beginning to pray before it, she experienced
a sudden wild hope. Loudly she demanded
that someone bring her oil from Padre Solano’s lamps – at once! It must have seemed quite hopeless to the
numerous onlookers, but to pacify the poor mother, this was done, and the oil
was applied to the broken little face and head.
The miracle which followed worked instantaneously! The eye returned to its orbit, the break in
the head closed, and little Maria returned to life with the exclamation,
‘Jesus, remain with me!’” (Fanchon Royer, St.
Francis Solanus – Apostle to America, St. Anthony Guild Press, Patterson,
N.J., 1955, p. 187.)
St.
Francis Solanus miraculously crosses a river: “The river was wide and there was no
boat to carry him to the opposite shore.
How happy were his Indians in their belief that, for this reason, they
would have their padre with them a little longer. But he, it seems, was hearing the voices
which cried to him from the other side.
For a last time he exhorted his dear Indios to persevere in seeking
God’s grace, in the Faith, and in love of neighbor; and he gave them his
blessing. Then, lifting up his eyes to
heaven, he was elevated to ecstasy. He
now spread his mantle upon the water and embarked upon it without fear, and
thus passed over to the opposite shore, leaving those who had accompanied him
as far as the river in the extreme of astonishment.” (Fanchon Royer, St. Francis Solanus – Apostle to America,
St. Anthony Guild Press, Patterson, N.J., 1955, p. 117.)
St. Francis extraordinary travels: “The diligent
apostle did not content himself with ministering to his own converts, the
Christian thousands about Socotonio and Magdalena. As soon as he was confident that their feet
were firmly placed upon the Christian path of life, he set his own to another immense tour which, owing to the
rigors of the terrain which he chose to penetrate, was to prove a classic
chapter in the marvelous epic of record-breaking travel and spiritual
adventure… while evangelizing and instructing the natives he might encounter in
the great wastes that stretched between the heroically founded stations. But this tour was so largely devoted to the
Gran Chaco that one imagines he must have known from the start that this vast,
still almost completely unexplored region was the prize for which he would
contest – alone and totally unsupplied with provisions of any sort.” (Fanchon
Royer, St. Francis Solanus – Apostle to
America, St. Anthony Guild Press, Patterson, N.J., 1955, p. 111.)
Witnesses
to his miracles:
“…eight hundred witnesses had presented themselves to testify under oath to St.
Francis prodigies. Among these, five
hundred and twenty were Limenos. The
list included prelates, savants, physicians, army officers of high rank,
religious, and ladies of prominent social standing. Also a witness was the temporal ruler of them
all, the Marques de Montesclaros, Viceroy of Peru.” (Ibid, p. 183.)
St.
Francis Solanus believed that no man is saved without Baptism. In his life, there is a story about a ship on
which St. Francis was traveling which came upon a terrible storm. This ship contained many religious, as well
as natives who had received some instruction from him but had not yet been
baptized. “They ran head into a violent
hurricane. Almost immediately the
cumbersome wooden ship went out of control, to become a mere chip on the
frantically churning seas… Water was now passing freely through the hold. In the midst of the tempest’s fury, the ship
was falling to pieces beneath them; and as there was but a single lifeboat
aboard, the disaster could only mean death for the majority of the company… the Captain made all haste to get the
Franciscans and some of the more prominent passengers over the side, that they
might be given this one last slim chance of survival [on a lifeboat]. Seeing that Fray Franciso made no move to
join his brothers in the boat, Juan de Morgana implored him to hurry. There was space for but one more. But
the missionary had already decided that he could not leave his stricken
Negritos [the natives] to die abandoned in their agony. Who could say that he might not be granted
the time to administer Baptism to some of them?... [He said]: ‘God will not allow me to save myself by
leaving my poor brothers to lose not only the life of the body, but also that
of the soul, which is eternal.’” (Ibid, p. 71.)
Thus, St. Francis clearly believed that they
would not be saved without Baptism, despite the knowledge or “desire” they
had. So he risked his life to stay, to
make sure they were convinced of the faith and baptized. He immediately went to work. “… imploring [God] for the time to complete
his holy mission, the priest immediately went to work. There were so many to whom he must administer
the Sacrament [of Baptism], and under circumstances which almost anyone else
would have found quite impossible!”
(Ibid, p. 73.)
As St. Francis continued to baptize, the ship
was actually broken into two by the hurricane.
“When the vessel had cleft in
twain, Fray Francisco [St. Francis] was hastily baptizing his
Negritos. He barely looked up as he
heard the noise… Quite naturally there were many who were still hysterical from
fright and the misery of their half-submerged positions. But Fray Francisco was perfectly calm; and as
the fragment of the ship miraculously continued to stay afloat, one by one, the
frightened men edged into their places before him and the crucifix still held
high by an arm which should by now have broken beneath it. In
this manner the hours dragged on, and finally the Sacrament had actually been
administered to all who wished to receive it.” After days of struggling on the seas in the
face of the hurricane, God intervened with a number of extraordinary events
which allowed the vessels to survive.
(Ibid, pp. 70-77.)
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