MIRACULOUS MIRACLES™

Saint — John Francis Regis, SJ

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St. John Francis Regis, SJ
January 31, 1597 AD, Fontcouverte, County of Provence — December 31, 1640 AD, La Louvesc, Vivarais
French Jesuit missionary of the Cévennes; apostle of the highland Massif Central
Basilica of Saint-Régis, La Louvesc, France — his shrine; French Catholic pilgrim destination, France
Feast
June 16 (later moved to June 16; death anniversary is December 31)
Canonized
Canonized June 5, 1737 by Pope Clement XII
Life

John Francis Regis was born on January 31, 1597 at Fontcouverte in Provence to the noble Provençal Regis family. In 1616 (at 19), John Francis entered the Society of Jesus at Toulouse.

Ordained priest in 1630, John Francis undertook the Jesuit missionary vocation to the Huguenot-and-Catholic mixed highland Massif Central region of southern France — the Cévennes Mountains and the Vivarais region.

For the 10 years (1630–1640), John Francis travelled across the Cévennes and Vivarais highlands on foot, preaching to both Catholic and Huguenot villagers. He famously reconverted tens of thousands of lapsed Catholic villagers.

John Francis undertook the social ministry: founding multiple Le Puy-en-Velay lace-making cooperatives that provided unemployed women with work; establishing orphanages and homes for fallen women.

On December 30, 1640, John Francis arrived at the village of La Louvesc in the middle of a snowstorm to preach at the Christmas mission. He died the next morning (December 31, 1640) of pneumonia at the age of 43.

Miracles & Phenomena

  • The Cévennes-Vivarais Catholic revival

    St. John Francis Regis's 10-year Cévennes-Vivarais missionary ministry (1630–1640) — reconverting tens of thousands of lapsed Catholic villagers in the Huguenot-and-Catholic mixed highland Massif Central region — established the 17th-century French Catholic highland revival. The Basilica of Saint-Régis at La Louvesc remains a principal French Catholic pilgrim destination.

  • The lace-making cooperatives

    John Francis Regis's social ministry — founding multiple Le Puy-en-Velay lace-making cooperatives — established the French Catholic social apostolate tradition. The Le Puy lace tradition continues to the present day as the French Catholic lace industry associated with St. Regis.

Relics
  • Body
    Relics of St. John Francis Regis
    Basilica of Saint-Régis, La Louvesc, France

    His relics rest at the Basilica of Saint-Régis at La Louvesc — the principal French Catholic pilgrim destination associated with him.

Iconography
  • Regis preaching in the snows of La Louvesc

    The early-17th-century French Jesuit in Jesuit black cassock preaching in the Cévennes highland village of La Louvesc in the Christmas snowstorm of December 1640 — the iconography of Catholic French highland-mission tradition.

Patronages
Society of JesusCatholic French Cévennes and Vivarais Catholic tradition (apostle of the Massif Central)Catholic lace-makers (patronage from his care for unemployed lace-workers)Catholic social workers
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