St Francis Solano was born in Montilla near Spain, he was taught by Jesuits and became a Franciscan
Priest. He was known as the ‘Apostle of America’. He volunteered himself to go on foreign missions and his first one was to Peru. On his way there he encountered a storm and was close to being shipwrecked. Francis decided to stay onboard with 80 slaves, where he helped baptise them. The ship broke apart and some were lost at sea. Francis reached Lima and spent the next twenty years travelling around Columbia, Chile, Paraguay and Argentina, converting people to Christianity. He died in Lima at the age of 60 and was canonised by Pope Benedict the XIII on 27th December 1726.
Prayer: St Francis Solano
Dear Lord,
We give thanks for the mission of
St Francis Solano and the work he undertook
with the people of Peru, Columbia, Chile, Paraguay and Argentina.
Let us today be missionaries of our time,
spreading the ‘Good News’, and
we ask for you to send your Holy Spirit
to guide us in our work.
We ask this through Christ your Son, Our Lord.
Amen.
St Francis Solano. Pray for us.
Picture: Jim McIntosh, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons