Guido Maria Conforti

The major work of Guido Maria Conforti is the foundation, on December 3, 1895, of the Congregation of Saint Francis Xavier for the Foreign Missions, today called the Xaverian Missionaries. Driven by an ardent missionary desire, he placed his institute under the patronage of Saint Francis Xavier, Apostle of the Orient, and gave it the vocation of proclaiming the Gospel to peoples who do not know Christ. The institute received the approval of Pope Leo XIII on December 3, 1898, and as early as 1899, Conforti sent his first missionaries to China, a land toward which the congregation's efforts would be durably directed. Parallel to this foundation, his episcopal career unfolded: appointed Archbishop of Ravenna in 1902, he was consecrated bishop on June 11, 1902, in the Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls in Rome, but had to resign from this see in 1904 for health reasons. In 1907, Pope Pius X appointed him Bishop of Parma, a position he held for nearly a quarter of a century, until his death, dedicating himself to the formation of the clergy, catechesis, pastoral visits, and the holding of diocesan synods. In 1928, despite fragile health, he undertook a journey to China to visit his missionaries.

The spirituality of Guido Maria Conforti is deeply Christocentric, marked by the contemplation of the crucified Christ, which he had experienced since childhood. Two mottos summarize his spiritual profile: "In omnibus Christus" (Christ in all things) and "Caritas Christi urget nos" (the love of Christ urges us on), the latter taken from the Second Letter to the Corinthians (2 Cor 5:14) and adopted as the guiding principle of his missionary institute. In his canonization homily, Pope Benedict XVI emphasized that Conforti taught that "perfection consists in doing the will of God, in the image of Jesus crucified," and that he accepted trials with docility, especially long periods of illness, as dispositions of Providence. His contemplation of the Cross nourished in him the conviction that the love of Christ extends to all men, the foundation of his passion for the missions. As a bishop, he showed himself particularly concerned for souls far from God and for the sanctification of his clergy, witnessing to a constant self-giving and a trusting abandonment to the divine will.

Guido Maria Conforti was beatified on March 17, 1996, by Pope John Paul II at St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. The miracle recognized for his beatification is, according to several sources, the 1965 healing of a twelve-year-old girl, Sabina Kamariza, who was suffering from cancer, following the prayers of Xaverian sisters in Burundi who invoked his intercession. After the recognition of a second miracle, the decree for which was approved by Pope Benedict XVI on December 10, 2010, Conforti was canonized on October 23, 2011, in St. Peter's Square, during a celebration that also raised Luigi Guanella and Bonifacia Rodríguez de Castro to the honors of the altar. In his homily, Benedict XVI presented the new saint as a model of apostolic zeal and abandonment to the will of God. The liturgical feast of Saint Guido Maria Conforti is celebrated on November 5, the anniversary of his death.

The primary legacy of Guido Maria Conforti is the missionary institute he founded: the Xaverian Missionaries, who have spread far beyond the China of their beginnings to work in Asia, Africa, America, and Europe. A female congregation, the Xaverian Missionary Sisters, also follows the same spiritual tradition of evangelization. A reference figure for the Diocese of Parma, of which he was bishop for nearly twenty-five years, Conforti is venerated there, and his memory is maintained by the Xaverian institutions established in the city. His canonization in 2011 strengthened his influence as a spiritual patron of the Church's missionary impulse, under the motto "Caritas Christi urget nos," and as a model of a pastor united in the contemplation of the crucified Christ. His liturgical memorial on November 5 is celebrated by the Xaverian family and in the universal Church.