16th Jun - S JOHN FRANCIS REGIS, SJ (1597-1640)

 This French saint was eighteen, he entered the Jesuit order. In the seminary, John's love for God and his vocation showed in the way he prayed. 

    He was also eager to teach catechism in the parishes when he could. After he was ordained a priest, Regis began his work as a missionary preacher. 

    He gave very simple talks that came right from his heart. He especially spoke to the poor, ordinary folks. They came in great crowds to hear him. 

    He spent his mornings praying, performing the sacrament of Reconciliation and preaching. In the afternoon, he would visit prisons and hospitals. 

    To someone who said that the prisoners and bad women he converted would not stay good for long, the saint answered: "If my efforts stop just one sin from being committed, 

    I shall consider them worthwhile." Regis journeyed to wild mountain parishes even on the coldest days of winter to preach his missions. Sometimes he would start off for a far-away 

    town at three o'clock in the morning with a few apples in his pocket for his day's food. Once, on his way to a village, Regis fell and broke his leg. But he kept on going,

    leaning on a stick and on his companion's shoulder. When he reached the village, he went at once to hear confessions. He did not have his leg taken care of. At the end of the day,

    when the doctor looked at it, his leg was already completely healed. Regis died on one of his preaching missions. He became very ill while lost at night in the woods. 

    Just before he died, he exclaimed: "I see Our Lord and his mother opening heaven for me." In 1806, a pilgrim joined the crowds going to pray at the shrine of Regis. 

    The pilgrim believed all his life that this saint obtained his vocation to the priesthood. That man was John Vianney, the Cure of Ars. John Francis Regis was canonized in 1737.