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Seelos Scholarship Honors Life of Mercy, Compassion
By Sarah O'Brien Mackey
"I love the work of the missions more than anything else. It is properly the work in the vineyard of the Lord; it is entirely apostolic work."
—Blessed Francis Xavier Seelos, Redemptorist, 1819-1876
A Holy Cross family, who wishes to remain anonymous, has established a scholarship fund at the College in honor of Blessed Francis Xavier Seelos, a Redemptorist priest who ministered to poor and immigrant communities in the United States during the mid-19th century. Providing full tuition support, the Father Francis Xavier Seelos Scholarship will make a Holy Cross education possible for first-generation and non-traditional college students from the Worcester area.
"We are very grateful to these generous friends," says Holy Cross president, Rev. Michael C. McFarland, S.J. "The Seelos Scholarship will enrich our Holy Cross community and make an important contribution to our mission of building a more just and compassionate society. It will also honor a remarkable man in Father Seelos, who spent his life ministering to others."
Champions of Fr. Seelos' legacy, the donor family felt that a scholarship in his name was particularly fitting during this time of intense and sometimes divisive national debate on immigration reform. They were particularly pleased to support the higher-education aspirations of immigrants and those to whom Fr. Seelos ministered throughout his life.
The recipients of the Seelos Scholarship will be drawn from the Greater Worcester community, including its large and growing Latin American, Southeast Asian and West African populations. To help identify and recruit the most qualified students, Holy Cross will publicize the Seelos Scholarship in a variety of outreach locations including neighborhood development centers, graduate equivalency degree programs, minority organizations, the Holy Cross Club of Worcester, English as a second language programs, churches and various adult education programs.
"For many years, Holy Cross has had difficulty attracting first-generation and non-traditional students, largely because of the financial barriers," says Fr. McFarland. "The Seelos Scholarship will allow such students to enroll at the College without undue financial burden on themselves or their families, and to graduate free from the kind of debt that can affect for many years their choice of career or their ability to serve others."
A blessed life
Born on Jan. 11, 1819 in Fussen, Bavaria, Germany, Francis Xavier Seelos felt drawn to religious devotion from an early age. As a young man, he studied philosophy at the University of Munich and then entered the diocesan seminary. One evening during his first year of theology studies, the Blessed Mother appeared to him. It was the confirmation he had been waiting for, and soon thereafter, he joined the Redemptorist appeal for missionaries in the New World. On March 17, 1843, Francis Xavier Seelos set sail for America.
Once in the United States, Fr. Seelos served for many years as a parish priest in the largely immigrant communities of Pittsburgh and Baltimore. Ministering in both English and German, he soon became known for his gentle and friendly manner and for the compassion he showed toward the poorest and most abandoned among his parishioners. Lines formed at his confessional as penitents traveled from near and far to seek his counsel.
In 1862, Fr. Seelos dedicated himself to the life of an itinerant missionary preaching sermons across the Midwest and Eastern United States. His travels took him through the states of Connecticut, Illinois, Michigan, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Wisconsin. "I love the work of the missions more than anything else," Fr. Seelos once wrote to his sister. "It is properly the work in the vineyard of the Lord; it is entirely apostolic work."
In 1866, Fr. Seelos was transferred to Saint Mary's Assumption Parish in New Orleans—a city that served as a bustling port of entry for immigrants to the United States. Although brief, his ministry in New Orleans was by all accounts extraordinary, as he worked day and night, ministering to those in sickness and distress.
Exhausted from caring for the victims of yellow fever, Fr. Seelos contracted the disease himself. He died at the age of 48 on Oct. 4, 1867. Thousands of mourners of all different nationalities, races and classes attended his funeral at St. Mary's, where a shrine is now located in his memory.
"Father died doing what he considered most important, ministering joyfully to the sick and disadvantaged," says one member of the donor family. "He became a legend in New Orleans, even though he was only there for such as short time."
In 2000, Pope John Paul II beatified Fr. Seelos at a ceremony in Saint Peter's Square. Redemptorist Fr. Thomas D. Picton called Fr. Seelos' beatification "a testament to his life's work of mercy and compassion to welcome all people who experience themselves as strangers, alienated, marginalized and disenfranchised into a new communion of the human family." Today, there is a strong movement for Fr. Seelos' canonization.
A special kinship
In addition to their admiration for his ministry, the members of the donor family said that they feel a special kinship with Fr. Seelos because they traveled many of the same roads, starting out life together in Baltimore and Pittsburgh. They also have extended family members in New Orleans, who have been touched by the devotion that local residents still express for the man who was with them for such a short time.
"The purpose of the Seelos Fund is to publicize the example of Fr. Seelos' life and promote the values he held dear," says a family member. "We feel this money was a gift in many ways, so we are very happy to give some of it back and create a scholarship fund at Holy Cross. We are grateful to be able to spread the meaning and work of Fr. Seelos."
Sarah O'Brien Mackey is a freelance writer from Cambridge,
Mass.