Although it was only for a matter of seconds, hundreds of people in Saskatoon had the chance to see the 465-year-old arm of St. Francis Xavier.
In Saskatoon, 3,000 people were expected to view the relic at the Holy Family Cathedral on Thursday.
Nationally, upwards of 100,000 are expected to view the arm and hand in January during a one month tour across 15 Canadian cities.
The Archdiocese of Ottawa, the Jesuits in Canada and Catholic Christian Outreach (CCO) collaborated for the national tour.
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“It’s really an extraordinary privilege to have it come to Canada. It very rarely leaves Rome, so this is really a big deal,” said Angèle Regnier, the co-founder of CCO.
“His body didn’t see normal decay when he died. This is a 465-year-old relic and it looks like a hand because it is his hand and because it’s been miraculously kept in this state,” Regnier said.
Most of St. Francis Xavier’s body is enshrined in Goa, India and his arm is typically located at the Jesuit mother church in Rome.
It is estimated St. Francis Xavier’s right arm baptized more than 100,000 people, before he died in 1552.
“That’s the arm that baptized tens of thousands of people. That’s the arm that raised the Eucharist. That’s the arm that prayed over people who received healing,” said D’Arcy Murphy, the guardian of the relic.
“He’s considered after St. Paul, the greatest missionary the church has ever had. He’s the patron saint of missions for the Catholic Church. He did extensive missions into Asia. He was the first to bring the Christian message to Japan,” Regnier said.
“When we were given this gift to bring him here for our university students, we realized that this was actually bigger than that. This was an opportunity to share it with our whole nation,” Murphy said.
The relic will be in Regina on Saturday, Jan. 20 at the Resurrection Roman Catholic Parish.
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