Praised be Jesus and Mary, now and forever.
Saint Francis Xavier was a Jesuit missionary, one of the companions of Saint Ignatius of Loyola himself.
He died at the age of 46 in 1552 on one of his missionary journeys.
He was faithful to that obligation that's imposed on every priest and even every Christian that obligation to spread the gospel, to try to bring souls to know the one true God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit into the one true Church, one holy Catholic and apostolic.
Saint Francis Xavier is also the co-patron of this diocese, the Archdiocese of Indianapolis.
The history of how he became the patron is told to us on the diocesan website itself.
The archivist gives us a short summary of how it came, that Saint Francis is the patron here.
So evidence indicates that the first mass here in this territory near Vincennes was celebrated by Jesuit missionaries from Canada near 1702.
The first church built there in 1749 was named for Saint Francis Xavier.
He was already back then a canonized saint and Jesuit missionaries had great devotion to him.
Sacramental records from 1749, signed by a Jesuit priest, Father Sebastian Marin, date from that year.
So already the Jesuits were active in administering the sacraments in 1749.
In 1785, Father Pierre Gibault built a second log church building and then the final and current church building there in Vincennes was begun in 1826 and fully completed in 1834 when Bishop Simon Bruté was named as the first bishop of the diocese.
The entire, the original diocese had its headquarters in Vincennes and encompassed the entire state of Indiana and a part of Illinois, but then it became reduced.
New diocese were created in Chicago, then Fort Wayne and Lafayette, et cetera.
So the diocese slowly shrunk as the population increased and couldn't be as big and then moved to Indianapolis as the center of population moved to Indianapolis so did the headquarters of the diocese.
So that by 1898, it was renamed the Diocese of Indianapolis.
The chapel of the current St. Peter and Paul Cathedral was built in 1892 and it was determined that the new cathedral would be under the patronage of St. Peter and Paul, but the diocese would remain under the patronage of St. Francis Xavier.
And when in 2006, St. Mother Theodore Guerin was canonized, they became co-patrons.
Mother Theodore Guerin and Francis Xavier together, patrons of the Archdiocese of Indianapolis.
And on the same website, the archdiocese suggests a prayer to say today to St. Francis Xavier, especially for the current bishop, Archbishop Charles Thompson.
And the prayer goes like this, St. Francis Xavier, co-patron of the Archdiocese of Indianapolis, you saw goodness in cultures other than your own and used beauty within human culture to share the truth of the gospel.
We ask you to intercede for Archbishop Charles Thompson.
May his leadership help fill our cities, towns, suburbs, and rural areas with the saving truths of our Catholic faith for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.
May the intercession of St. Francis Xavier help make all this happen here in this archdiocese to spread the beauty, the truth of the Catholic faith so that all people, every single soul in this territory might be brought to know the one true God, Father, Son, Holy Spirit who is one true Church, Holy Catholic and Apostolic.
Praised be Jesus and Mary, now and forever.