Saint Who?
Saints Who Could Read Souls
Saint Francis Xavier Bianchi
Priest and religious († 1815) Feast: January 31
Born in 1743, Francis attended minor seminary and then studied law in Naples. Though attracted to the religious life, he hesitated because his family was opposed. Finally, encouraged by a meeting with Saint Alphonsus Liguori, Francis pursued his vocation. He joined the Congregation of Clerks Regular of Saint Paul (known as the Barnabites) and was ordained a priest in 1797.
He was a fine and eager scholar, and he received faculties to hear confession unusually early; at the time this was often delayed for young priests. His “vocation within the vocation” took off after a mystical experience of transverberation—a piercing of the heart with divine love—which was followed by other exceptional spiritual gifts, including prophecy and reading hearts. These were often exercised in the confessional. “I enter here full of anxiety,” a penitent remarked, “and leave entirely peaceful.”
To balance the fire of love in his heart, he received a cross of fiery pain in his legs. Unable to walk, he remained patient and amiable. In a biographer’s words, “in him the sweetness of God’s love had become a habit.” The people of Naples loved and relied on him, and it is said that when Mount Vesuvius erupted in 1805, they carried him out to the lava stream, stopping its flow. Francis died in 1815 and was canonized in 1951.
Merciful Father, through the prayers of
Saint Francis Xavier Bianchi, set the hearts
of priests on fire with love for sinners.
