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hand and heart

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Some of the 80,000 people who came to see the relic hand and forearm of St. Francis Xavier on its cross-Canada tour, including stops at Calgary鱿鱼视频app St. Albert the Great Church, above, and St. Francis Xavier Parish inv, Ont., right. Photo by Lincoln Ho, Grandin Media

St. Francis Xavier鱿鱼视频app Canadian tour leaves a lasting legacy

By 
  • February 6, 2018
OTTAWA 鈥 Nearly 80,000 people across Canada thronged to see the relic of St. Francis Xavier that made a coast-to-coast pilgrimage Dec. 26-Feb. 3.

Angele Regnier, co-founder of (CCO) who accompanied every step of the pilgrimage, said the local bishops and priests were astonished by numbers.

鈥淭here鱿鱼视频app a lot of hope that鱿鱼视频app been inspired through the pilgrimage, especially the faithful, the priests, the bishops, seeing so many thousands of people come,鈥 Regnier said. 

The right hand and forearm of the Jesuit missionary who baptized and blessed tens of thousands returned to Rome Feb. 4 with Ottawa Archbishop Terrence Prendergast and a delegation from CCO, including Regnier, her co-founder husband Andr茅, CCO president Jeff Lockert, and D鈥橝rcy Murphy, who served as the 鈥溾 on the pilgrimage.

After arriving in Rome, Prendergast celebrated a Mass of Thanksgiving at the Church of the Ges霉 in Rome where the relic is usually housed in a side altar opposite the one housing the remains of St. Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Society of Jesus.

鈥淚鈥檝e been blown away; it鱿鱼视频app hard to put into words,鈥 said Murphy, a University of Ottawa student who took a semester off to accompany the relic. 鈥淚 have so many stories. It鱿鱼视频app going to take years and years of my life to actually process everything, to understand all of these graces the Lord has been pouring out.鈥

The pilgrimage cost an estimated $230,000, said Prendergast, though final costs are not in yet, nor are all the donations. He expects any loss or surplus 鈥渨ill be minor.鈥

Though exhilarated at the response the relic pilgrimage received, the pilgrimage was a lot more work than expected, with a few unexpected glitches, such as finding out insurance costs for the priceless relic, were going to double, the archbishop said.

The relic鱿鱼视频app pilgrimage culminated at Ottawa鱿鱼视频app Feb. 2, with a special Mass for the Feast of the Presentation during which Prendergast consecrated a new marble altar.

鈥淏y his life and zeal to proclaim the Gospel to the ends of the Earth, Xavier challenges us to do the same today, to become what Pope Francis challenges us to be, missionary disciples who learn from Christ each day and share what we have come to know of Him and the Kingdom with others,鈥 the archbishop said in his homily.

鈥淓verybody鱿鱼视频app told me they were pleased with what happened,鈥 Pendergast said. 鈥淧eople are very happy about it. Any disgruntled people have not said very much.鈥

Regnier said their expectations were 鈥減retty high,鈥 because they had received some advice from Fr. Carlos Martins of the Companions of the Cross, who asked her to envision what the pilgrimage would be like when they were in the planning stages.

鈥淚nitially I thought it would be 500 people in a city,鈥 she said. But Martins told her, 鈥渘o, it would be more like 3,000.鈥 

Prendergast also expected big crowds because of the reception the relics of St. Therese of Lisieux received in 2001. For that pilgrimage, an estimated two million Catholics came, according to the CCCB website.

鈥淚n Quebec for example, they chose the largest churches and they weren鈥檛 big enough,鈥 Prendergast said. 鈥淪t. FX doesn鈥檛 have the same cachet as the Little Flower, but once the story gets out, his relic is fascinating.鈥

SFX relic armPhoto courtesy of Catholic Christian Outreach 

鈥淓very single place we鈥檝e gone to has underestimated the size of the crowd,鈥 Regnier said. 鈥淲hatever the local people told us, we just put a zero after it.


鈥淚n Quebec City, they told us 100 and we got 1,500,鈥 she said. 鈥淚n St. John鱿鱼视频app they predicted 150; we had 1,800.鈥

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