MIRACULOUS MIRACLES^™

Prayer — Novenas

The Novena of Grace to St. Francis Xavier

Naples, 1634; the novena prayer indulgenced by Pius X, 23 March 1904

4 to 12 March, ending on the anniversary of his canonisation: the novena begun in Naples in 1634 after the Jesuit Marcello Mastrilli was healed, with the indulgenced novena prayer and Xavier's own hymn 'O God, Thou art the object of my love'.

The Prayer

English · Original

V. O God, come to my assistance.
R. O Lord, make haste to help me.
Glory be to the Father, etc.

Let us pray.
O God, who wast pleased to restore to the bosom of Thy Church the nations of the Indies, through the preaching and miracles of St. Francis Xavier, mercifully grant us, that we may imitate his virtues, whose glorious merits we hold in veneration. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

PRAYER OF THE NOVENA (each day)
O great St. Francis, well beloved and full of charity, with thee I reverently adore the divine Majesty; and since I specially rejoice in the singular gifts of grace bestowed on thee in life, and of glory after death, I give thanks to God, and beg of thee, with all the affections of my heart, that by thy powerful intercession thou mayest obtain for me above all things the grace to live a holy life and die a holy death. Moreover, I beg of thee to obtain for me (here name the favour); but if what I ask does not tend to the glory of God and the greater good of my soul, do thou, I beseech thee, obtain for me what will more certainly attain these ends. Amen.

Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory be, five times.

V. Pray for us, St. Francis Xavier.
R. That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.

HYMN OF ST. FRANCIS XAVIER
O God, Thou art the object of my love,
Not for the hope of endless joys above,
Nor for the fear of endless pains below
Which those who love Thee not must undergo.
For me, and such as me, Thou once didst bear
The ignominious cross, the nails, the spear;
A thorny crown transpierced Thy sacred brow;
What bloody sweats from every member flow!
Such as then was and is Thy love for me,
Such is and shall be still my love for Thee;
Thy love, O Jesus, will I ever sing —
O God of love, sweet Saviour, dearest King!

When the Prayer is Said

4–12 March every year (the Novena of Grace); 24 November to 2 December before the feast; for the missions.

History & Background

The Novena of Grace is the most famous of all novenas to a saint and the only one with a fixed date. In December 1633 the Jesuit Marcello Mastrilli lay dying in Naples of a head injury; Francis Xavier, canonised eleven years before, appeared to him, and he was healed on the spot — and went to Japan, where he was martyred in 1637. Out of the healing came the novena, kept from 4 to 12 March, the day of Xavier's canonisation in 1622, and the 'graces' in its name are the favours reported in such numbers that the name stuck. It is preached to this day in Jesuit churches around the world.

Pius X indulgenced the novena prayer in 1904, on condition it was said each day 'or Pater, Ave and Gloria five times', with three hundred days each day and a plenary indulgence within eight days of the end, 'twice a year only'. The prayer is the Raccolta's; the collect and the hymn, a version of the sonnet 'O Deus, ego amo te' long attributed to Xavier, are as Blessed Be God (1925) printed them for parish use.

A novena is nine consecutive days (or nine consecutive weeks of one fixed day) of the same prayer for the same intention; a day missed breaks it, and it is begun again. Confession and Communion during the nine days, or on the last, were the ordinary conditions for the plenary indulgence.

Indulgences Attached

Three hundred days each day and a plenary indulgence within eight days of the end, twice a year — Pius X, 23 March 1904 (Raccolta, 1910, no. 390).

Related Saints

St. Francis Xavier

April 7, 1506, Xavier Castle, Navarre – December 3, 1552, Shangchuan Island, off Guangdong

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