St Francis Solano

Francis Solano was born at Montilla in Andalusia in 1549, educated by the Jesuits, and entered the Franciscan Observants in 1569. After ordination he divided his life between hidden prayer and zealous preaching, and his sermons, though not adorned with studied eloquence, had great power to reform those who heard them. Even as master of novices he preferred to blame himself when they failed, giving the penance to himself rather than to them. For many years he worked in southern Spain and showed heroic charity during the plague at Granada in 1583. He longed to go as a missionary to Africa, but providence sent him instead to the New World. In 1589 he sailed with other friars toward Peru. On the way, the ship was driven onto a sandbank in a storm, and when there was room for only some to escape, a number of enslaved Black men were left aboard. Francis refused to abandon them. He gathered them around him on the breaking ship, urged them to trust in the mercy of God and in Christ, and baptized them before the vessel split apart.

Some were drowned; others, with Francis, were rescued after days of waiting. This life lets that moment reveal the whole man. The next twenty years were spent in unwearied apostolic labour. Francis was sent first to Tucuman, learned Indian languages and dialects, crossed terrible country into regions like the Chaco and Paraguay, planted missions, and later supervised them when made custos. From there he was called to other labour in Lima, Trujillo, and elsewhere among the Spanish colonists. His preaching against corruption could move whole cities. This life recounts how in Lima, when Francis compared the fate of a sinful soul to that of a doomed city, hearers feared an approaching judgment and a panic nearly followed until authorities required him to calm them and explain that he was speaking of spiritual ruin. He was credited with miracles and with the gift of tongues, and in Peru came to be called the wonder-worker of the New World. Yet This life’s real emphasis is simpler and stronger: this friar prayed deeply, crossed great distances, adapted himself to new peoples, baptized, preached, corrected, and kept going until he died in 1610, his last words being, “Glory be to God”, at the moment of the consecration during conventual Mass.