Seelos delivers his first sermon on the feast of St. Joseph. He quickly becomes a popular preacher, speaking to the everyday spiritual needs of the people in a plain manner. This is not as popular with some members of the Congregation, one of whom calles him a “blockhead.” In true Seelos fashion he takes this reproof “very quietly and patiently,” says fellow Redemptorist Thaddeus Anwander. There was no denying, his sermons had an unusual power of bringing people to church and sinners to repentance.
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Seelos finally hears his first confessions. Although he had faculties to do so for more than two months, he does not think he is ready because of his imperfect knowledge of the English language. Moreover, in a letter home he says that he is not inclined to learn English! However, out of necessity he heard confessions in German, English and French, and of whites and blacks. He notes that his first time “turned out well… It was clearly a grace of God.” Indeed it must have turned out well; Seelos becomes a much-sought-after confessor for the rest of his life.
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Seelos performs his first baptism – a day BEFORE he had officially been granted the faculties of the archdiocese to do this. Lest we think less of our Blessed Seelos, it is believed that he had received verbal permission from the archbishop to do so.
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Seelos is ordained a priest at the Redemptorist Church of St. James in Baltimore, MD. He celebrates his first Mass as a priest three days later, on Christmas Day. In a letter home, he tells his family of his prayers during that Mass, “I certainly did include all of you in them and recommended you to him whom I had so closely before me and touched with my own hands… Holy Guardian Angels, tell it to them, so that they can share in the joy, share in my prayers, that I may not have the misfortune to be rejected as an unworthy dispenser of the mysteries of God.”
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Exactly a year to the day from his entrance into the novitiate, Seelos professes the vows of poverty, chastity and obedience as a Redemptorist. Throughout the ceremony he repeatedly prays to Mary, thanking her for her help and asking for her intercession. He says to the Blessed Mother, “I promise not only to love, to serve, and to venerate you myself, but to do all in my power to cause others to love and venerate you,” a promise he faithfully kept his entire life. | Shown above, the Redemptorist crest. The motto “Copiosa Apud Eum Redemptio” means “With Him is Plentiful Redemption.”
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Seelos begins his year as a novice at St. James the Less. During a ceremony of investiture, he puts aside his secular clothing and begins wearing the distinctive Redemptorist habit. In a response to the celebrant’s question of what Seelos desires, he responds, “…I most humbly and earnestly beg Your Reverence that, despite my unworthiness of so great a favor you will, out of love for Jesus Christ, receive me as the least and most unworthy of all the brothers in this Congregation in which I hope with the aid of divine grace to persevere unto the end of my life.” | Shown above, a sketch of St. James the Less.
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Seelos arrives in New York City on Easter Thursday after five weeks of prayer and study, teaching catechism lessons, and visiting the sick on the St. Nicholas.
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After dashing off a short letter of farewell to his family 15 minutes before boarding the St. Nicholas, Seelos sets sail from Le Havre, France, bound for missionary life in the United States.
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Seelos leaves the seminary in Augsburg with his sights set on Baltimore. It is a sad time for Xavier, as he knows this would be the last time he would see his family and the friends he had made in the seminary. He writes in a letter to his sister, “Love has united us, love does not mean parting, love will always remain, love will unite us again in the beyond.”
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On the feast day of St. Cecilia, patron saint of musicians, Seelos receives notification of his acceptance as a novice from Fr. Alexander Czvitkovicz, the superior of the Redemptorist mission in America. That feast day was ever afterward memorable to him, and he writes several poems in St. Cecilia’s honor.
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