On a gloomy, wet Saturday evening, a small gathering of Armidale Catholic parishioners waited for the arrival by hearse of the St Francis Xavier Relic on its Pilgrimage of Grace tour around Australia.
The relic, which is the right arm of St Francis Xavier, arrived on Saturday night accompanied by Father Richard Shortall from the Society of Jesus. The right arm holds significance, as it was the arm with which he baptised thousands of people and tended to the sick.
Francis Xavier was a missionary in East Asia and died at the age of 46 in 1552. Francis was canonised as a saint in 1622 and was named a patron of mission,, along with St Therese of Llsieux in 1928. He was patron saint of Australia during Australia’s time as a mission country.
The relic resides in Rome in the main Jesuit Church, the Gesu, and is seen as a once in a lifetime opportunity for Catholics around Australia to physically and spiritually connect with a saint.
On arrival at the cathedral, the relic was carried inside and Father Richard Shortall gave a short history of St Francis Xavier and the relic; before parishioners had the chance to venerate the relic.
Administrator of the Cathedral, Monsignor Ted Wilkes, said this was a terrific opportunity for Catholics to get closer to Jesus through the relic of St Francis Xavier.
“We try to encourage people through contem-plating St Francis Xavier to get to Jesus Christ and the importance of faith in him,” said Monsignor Wilkes.
“St Francis Xavier covered enormous territory and got to an enormous amount of people and preached, to sometimes tens of thousands from what I read. He left his comfortable surrounds in Europe for Asia and worked tirelessly amongst the people.
“We don’t see a visit of a relic of this significance and importance to this area very often. There was a visit of a relic of St Therese of Llsieux in the last 12 years but it is about that long between visits, so it doesn’t come around very often and particularly someone as great as St Francis Xavier.”
The relic of St Francis Xavier left Armidale on Sunday afternoon to continue on its Pilgrimage of Grace tour to Tamworth and then Gunnedah, Moree and Narrabri.
Story: Jo Harrison
