From Bienville to Bourbon Street to bounce. 300 moments that make New Orleans unique.

WHAT HAPPENED Father Francis 1718 ~ 2018 Xavier Seelos was beatified on 300 April 9, 2000. TRICENTENNIAL

Father Seelos’ mission and ministry irrevocably changed New Orleans. Seelos died here of yellow fever on Oct. 4, date for bishop of , but he chose in- 1867, just months after becoming pastor of the stead to be a traveling throughout The official St. Mary’s Assumption Church on Josephine several states before he was sent to Detroit. portrait of Father Street in the Irish Channel. Before then, the In 1866, he was assigned to St. Mary’s in New Francis Xavier Seelos, painted Redemptorist priest was known for his out- Orleans. Seelos was caring for yellow fever by Italian artist reach not just to those in New Orleans, but victims when he contracted the disease and Giuseppe Antonio Lomuscio, is also in , Connecticut, Illinois, Michi- died. at the National gan, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, The cause of Seelos’ was first of Blessed Francis Xavier , Rhode Island and Wisconsin. taken to Rome in 1900. John Paul II be- Seelos St. Mary’s Seelos was born in Bavaria, Germany, and atified Seelos on April 9, 2000. Efforts to make Assumption entered the Redemptorist order in 1842. He Seelos a continue, with reported mira- Church. left the following year for the United States to cles attributed to Seelos sent to the Vatican minister to immigrants, working in for consideration. and then in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. St. Mary’s Assumption Church houses the Seelos was sought out for his spiritual guid- National Shrine of Blessed Francis Xavier ance because of his straightforward way of Seelos, which contains a relic — a bone from communicating with a wide cross-section of Seelos. The St. Vincent de Paul Church in the people. In 1860, he was proposed as a candi- Bywater was renamed for Seelos. The ‘holy sternum bone’ of Father Francis Seelos at the shrine. THE HISTORIC NEW ORLEANSCOLLECTION

St. Mary’s Assumption Church, where Father Seelos ministered, houses the national shrine dedicated to him.